West Ham United ready to spend big to sign Arsenal defender William Saliba – report
West Ham United are ready to throw a “big cheque” at signing Arsenal defender William Saliba in the summer, according to Jeunes Footeux.
The French outlet has even reported on their website that the Irons have made the Marseille loanee their priority target.
Because of that, it is said that the Hammers are ready to offer their London rivals €30million (£25.2million) to get their man.
It won’t be an easy signing, though.
Arsenal are not yet to rule out keeping the 20-year-old, despite their reluctance to keep him at the club after signing him years ago.
On top of that, some of Europe’s elite are also said to be in the race for Saliba, with AC Milan and Real Madrid just two of the clubs watching.
Thankfully, that rules out one club – his current loan side, Marseille, who have been hard customers to deal with for the Irons in recent weeks.
Duje Caleta-Car was wanted in the final week of the window, but no deal was able to go through due to disagreements between the clubs.
Smart.
This makes sense for all parties.
Saliba will be desperate to prove himself in the Premier League after not being given that chance by Arsenal, who could want to cash in for their own transfer purposes in the future.
West Ham are crying out for a new centre-back, with a move for Caleta-Car failing in January, as mentioned before.
Rob Newman may have spotted Saliba while watching the Croatian at Marseille in recent weeks and months, and that failure could lead to a better outcome.
Either way, we need to be better prepared for the summer than we were last month, and starting by bringing in Saliba would be perfect business.
The 20-year-old has been everpresent for Marseille in the league and in Europe, and now it is time for him to prove it in the Premier League.
In other West Ham United news, this one Irons star is set for a bumper new deal at the London Stadium as interest sparks GSB into action