West Ham United table £8.4m bid Club Brugge captain Hans Vanaken, deemed ‘completely inadequate’
West Ham have tabled an opening bid of £8.4million to Club Brugge for their captain Hans Vanaken, according to the Het Belang van Limburg.
The Belgian newspaper reported via their print edition on Tuesday (16 August, page 17) that Club Brugge have rejected West Ham’s offer for the 29-year-old attacking midfielder, deeming it “completely inadequate”.
It is understood that David Moyes wants to add to his attack after losing his first two Premier League matches of the season.
Het Belang van Limburg claims that Belgium international Vanaken is “open to going abroad” this summer in light of West Ham’s bid but it all depends on whether Brugge accept an offer.
He’ll wait and see if the Hammers table a higher bid.
Bids in
After allowing Nikola Vlasic to leave on loan and missing out on Jesse Lingard, West Ham could do with adding to their attacking midfield options.
Vanaken is an experienced operator in that area of the pitch, playing over 340 times for Club Brugge and also earning 21 caps for the Belgian national team.
He’s also won five Belgian league titles, two Belgian football of the year awards and two Belgian Golden Shoe awards.
There’s no doubt that Vanaken is one of the best players the Belgian top-flight has ever had.
However, he’ll be turning 30 soon and we doubt that he’ll be a regular starter at the London Stadium should he swap the Belgian top-flight for the Premier League.
Vanaken has done it all in Belgium so he may well be tempted to make the move.
However, he’s got Champions League football to look forward to this season if he stays at Brugge, which is probably the only thing – other than his love for Brugge – that could keep him in Belgium.
We’ll see how this goes but it’s no big deal if West Ham miss out.