West Ham and Newcastle United will struggle to sign Atlanta United attacker Miguel Almiron this summer as the MLS franchise are not going to sell him, according to the Express.
Guardian Sport’s deputy news editor Ed Aarons claimed on his personal Twitter account earlier on Thursday that both the Premier League clubs were interested in signing the Paraguay international, who is valued at £20million by Atlanta.
However it seems that their hunt to sign the 24-year-old has now hit the skids, per the Express, as Atlanta are among the favourites to win the MLS Cup this year and are not prepared to cash in on their star player.
It is understood that Arsenal and Inter Milan were interested in Almiron last year, but now most European clubs will have to wait until 2019 to sign him.
OPINION
Almiron has been in very impressive form in Atlanta over the last couple of years, helping the newly-found franchise establish themselves as one of the best teams in the MLS. The Paraguayan is fast, has great technique and has a real eye for goal, which has helped put Atlanta United top of the Eastern Conference. He has scored eight goals and provided 11 assists from 21 league appearances in 2018, and is bound to continue to add to those over the course of the rest of the season. Newcastle and West Ham would do well to sign Almiron up. Getting in a player like that would not only improve their squads, but it would also be interesting to see if that boosts merchandising from the USA or South America, as Almiron is very much seen as one of the best players across the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.