West Ham United threaten Southampton in bid to sign James Ward-Prowse
West Ham have threatened to walk away in their pursuit of Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse, according to The Sun.
The newspaper reported via their live transfer blog on 1 August (01:20pm) that talks between the two clubs have hit a stalemate after the Saints rejected two bids from the Hammers that fell well below the midfielder’s £40million valuation.
It said Irons boss David Moyes is still pushing for a deal to land the 28-year-old, but that the East Londoners have threatened to pursue other targets as they are reluctant to offer more than £25million for the England international.
Pay up or move on
It really isn’t the time for West Ham to be dishing out threats to other clubs over signing their players as new signings are desperately needed before the season gets underway in less than two weeks.
Southampton are clearly not going to accept the money on offer from the Hammers due to the fact it’s more than £15million less than they value him at.
It’s the same as when we demanded more than £100million for Declan Rice. While he may not have been worth that to many people, that’s what he was worth to us – and that’s probably the same way they feel about Ward-Prowse.
It’s time for the club to either go some way towards matching the midfielder’s valuation or accept that it isn’t going to happen and quickly focus our attention on one of the other several targets.
The process of identifying and bringing players in this summer seems to have been nothing short of a shambles so far and that situation needs to change within the next couple of weeks.
In other West Ham news, one Hammers star is expected to join a CL club in the next few days.