West Ham are plotting a “mega” bid worth £13.4million to sign Alaves centre-back Guillermo Maripan, according to La Cuarta.
The Chilean news outlet claims that the release clause in Maripan’s deal is worth £22million and Alaves are not prepared to lose their impressive 25-year-old for any less than that.
It is understood that Roma are also interested in the Chile international, which could be problematic for West Ham as the Serie A club has similar financial capabilities to them.
Good move for West Ham?
Manuel Pellegrini has done a decent job in charge of the Hammer but one area of the squad that consistently let him down last season was the defence.
Although he brought in Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena, neither of them were really able to help the Irons form a formidable defence and that ultimately is why the club failed to finish higher up in the Premier League standings.
Alaves have had a great season in La Liga, finishing in 11th place despite at one stage looking as though they could have qualified for European football in 2019/20.
Maripan, who made 25 appearances in all competitions, was key to that success and Alaves would have no doubt finished higher in the league if it wasn’t for him getting injured in mid-March when his side were fifth in the table.
This is Futbol rating 7/10
Likely to happen?
West Ham are unlikely to spend big this summer after Pellegrini spent around £100million last year on bolstering his squad.
He may have to sell to buy before next season starts so he cannot go too high when bidding for Maripan.
Alaves are sticking to his release clause and you cannot blame them for that but eventually, the lure of Premier League football may cause the 6ft 4 [transfermarkt] colossus to kick up a fuss and that could benefit West Ham.
This is Futbol rating 5/10