West Ham United transfer news as Torino request to pay £8.7m for Nikola Vlasic who wants Italy stay
West Ham United loanee Nikola Vlasic wants to stay at Torino beyond this summer, and the Italian outfit will ask for a discount on his purchase option of €13m (£11.5m), according to CalcioMercato.
The Croatian international is currently on a season-long loan at the Serie A club, where he has made 30 appearances in all competitions, and registered five goals and four assists.
It is increasingly uncertain whether Vlasic will be a West Ham United player when the 2023/24 campaign kicks off in August, and Torino don’t want to pay the £11.5m to secure his permanent transfer.
“Among the situations that Torino will have to define at the end of the season is that linked to the future of Vlasic, who arrived on loan in the summer with the right to buy for 13 million.
“The player would like to stay in the grenade, but the club will ask the English for a discount to confirm it at less than 10 million”, Calcio Mercato reveals [18 May].
Let him go
West Ham United will be undergoing much change next season, and one of the biggest factors of that change will be letting fringe stars go. Unfortunately, Vlasic looks set to be on that list given his difficulties at the London Stadium.
The Croatian international only registered one goal and two assists for the East Londoners, tallies he has already surpassed in Italy, with four goals and five assists so far.
Vlasic is a quality player on his day, and even those numbers he’s pulled up in Italy aren’t reflective of his creative abilities – something West Ham United saw in him when they bought him for £26.8m in 2021 [BBC Sport].
The Irons are set to suffer a significant loss on that figure, even if Torino manage to cough up the purchase option agreement but given West Ham’s potential desire to allow him to leave, that £8.7m figure may not prove too small for them to consider.