West Ham United fell short to sign Odilon Kossounou on loan
West Ham made a late attempt to sign Bayer Leverkusen defender Odilon Kossounou in the summer transfer window, according to Alan Nixon.
Writing on his Patreon, the Sun journalist wrote on 4 September that the Hammers came up with £1 million in a loan fee for the 21-year-old defender.
Leverkusen, however, wanted more. They wanted the Hammers to secure him on on a guaranteed buy deal, that too on a big-money price.
Nixon wrote via his Patreon account on 14 August that Leverkusen were ready to sell the 15-times capped Ivory Coast international despite signing him just last summer from Club Brugge for £25million.
Kossounou was a regular for Leverkusen last season but he has currently become out of favour.
Depth
Bolster the defence was a priority for the Hammers this summer, and they did a brilliant job in adding some fantastic players.
The Hammers sold Issa Diop to Fulham, and they managed to keep hold of Craig Dawson. The veteran defender looked certain to leave the club on the transfer deadline day, but he was denied a deadline move to Wolves.
West Ham added Nayef Aguerd who is currently out injured. They have also added Thilo Kehrer to their ranks.
With Angelo Ogbonna still around, the Hammers now have got a solid depth at the back.
Probably, Moyes wanted to get hold of Kossounou as he was not certain about the future of Dawson. However, the club was not willing to meet Leverkusen’s terms.
To be fair, the signing of Kehrer solves a lot of problems. Kossounou was a regular for Leverkusen last season, and it came as a surprise that the German club were ready to sell him.