Presenter ExWHUemployee has claimed that West Ham United believed the supposed €60m (£51m) price tag for Amadou Onana to be ‘ridiculous’.
The insider recently stated that the Hammers had actually made a €23m (£19.8m) bid for the midfielder, only to see it fall short of Lille’s transfer valuation.
In a new update, it seems as though David Moyes and co have now made another bid, but the Ligue 1 club are holding out for a high fee that looks set to scupper any possible move this summer.
Indeed, when talking on The West Ham Way podcast, Ex said: “We made a bid for Amadou Onana last week, and then I believe we followed it up with a second bid to really test the water.
“Now, the first bid went in and they were talking about only wanting to accept something like €60m. So West Ham went back and said, ‘come on, let’s be serious, that’s ridiculous. What is the likely chance, how about we give you €27m, €28m?’ It actually might have been a bit less than that, I’m not sure of exact figures, but they sort of submitted a second bid like that.
“But again, Lille said, ‘no, no, no. we want near €60m’. There is talk now that they’re lowering their expectations, but at the moment, the two sides are far apart.”
He then concluded: “But at the moment, I believe the second bid has been rejected and we’re not going to go back in for him because the expectations are too far apart on the player.”
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TIF Thoughts on Amadou Onana and West Ham…
West Ham certainly seem to be keen on signing the Lille man, having already submitted two bids. Despite that, judging from these latest comments, they don’t value him quite as highly as the touted €60m figure.
Aurelien Tchouameni did just join Real Madrid from fellow Ligue 1 side AS Monaco for a fee of €100m (£84.8m) with add-ons, so Lille may feel as though that has set a precedent.
Even so, it seems unlikely that the Hammers would splash as close to that much on Onana – who is relatively unproven at 21 years of age, having made just one senior appearance for Belgium.
As things stand, it looks as though a move to the Premier League will not happen this summer for the young midfielder.