West Ham United used by Monaco to drive up Youssouf Fofana price after latest transfer snub
AC Milan are convinced that West Ham have been used to inflate the price of Youssouf Fofana by Monaco, Give Me Sport reports.
According to the outlet’s website on 29 July the Serie A giants believe their Ligue 1 counterparts only opened the race up to the Irons in order to drive up the finances involved, but remain calm and still expect the French midfielder to head to the San Siro.
The Hammers had been monitoring Fofana, 25, for a year but only entered into negotiations when they became aware that Milan were struggling to get a deal done.
However, the 21-cap France international has reportedly made clear that he isn’t interested in a move to the London Stadium.
West Ham miss out again as Tim Steidten under pressure
Since the Irons’ style in the transfer market usually sees them go after multiple players at once they are bound to be disappointed in the pursuits of some.
But when Fabricio Bruno, Jean-Clair Todibo, N’Golo Kanté and now Fofana are all on the list of players who have been subject to attempts from Tim Steidten to get them to East London only to decide against it the pattern isn’t flattering.
It appears something similar has since happened with Noussair Mazraoui at Bayern Munich [Florian Plettenberg, 26 July], although that might end up pushing Aaron Wan-Bissaka into the Irons’ hands [Fabrizio Romano, 29 July].
The German might justifiably point to the fact that he has battled to get difficult deals for Mohammed Kudus and Luis Guilherme over the line in the past year, and secured Julen Lopetegui’s primary centre-back target Max Kilman from former side Wolves.
He might equally be praised for pursuing ambitious targets as the Hammers look to reach the next level under their new manager.
But when the season is fast approaching and multiple reinforcements are still needed, not least a striker as the Jhon Duran saga continues to drag on without conclusion, it starts to look like time and energy has been wasted on failed transfer races.
In other West Ham news, the Irons are in advanced talks to make their latest summer signing for below asking price.
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