Third party fees delaying West Ham pursuit of Nikola Milenkovic

West Ham United’s quest to sign defender Nikola Milenkovic is reportedly taking time to get done due to the obstacle of agreeing on third party fees.

According to a report by 90Min, the Hammers are open to paying the £14million Fiorentina want for the 23-year-old.

However, they’re still to agree on personal terms with the defender as the third party fees have proven to be a major stumbling block.

West Ham

Get this done

Signing a centre-back is the need of the hour. We cannot realistically challenge for the top four with the likes of Craig Dawson, Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna as our top three centre-backs.

While they performed admirably last season, there have been signs that it was a one-off and expecting all three to kick on this coming season is a tad unrealistic, making reinforcements at the heart of our defence one of the priorities of the summer.

West Ham

The fact that we’re closing on a defender before we sign a striker suggests that David Moyes has also identified that it’s a weakness in his side and one he must rectify this summer, having committed the next few years of his career to the Hammers.

Milenkovic ticks most, if not all, of the boxes for Moyes, and we’re not surprised that the club is pushing so hard to get his signing over the line.

Hopefully, we can agree to the third party fees sooner rather than later and get this one over the line as soon as possible.

In other West Ham news, West Ham could close in on ‘Outstanding’ striker in few weeks – ExWHUemployee

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