West Ham and Arsenal agree transfer deal as player gives his answer claims journalist. Arsenal have been linked with a move for West Ham star Mohammed Kudus but that’s not the only deal that was on the cards between the London rivals.
There have been shades of Declan Rice all over again between the Hammers and Gunners. Speculation has been rife that Arsenal and Man City will do battle for top West Ham star Mohammed Kudus.
Arsenal won the race for Rice, paying West Ham a then record £105m after the midfielder chose north London over the Etihad.
The Irons then used a chunk of that money to sign Kudus from Ajax for £38.5m.
The Hammers want £100m to sell Kudus in the January transfer window. Arsenal are highly unlikely to pay that kind of money, with Mikel Arteta switching his attention to a cheaper Kudus alternative.
But dialogue between West Ham and Arsenal did not end there it seems.
Both clubs need new additions for different reasons.
West Ham and Arsenal agree transfer deal
Arsenal to try and boost their chances of winning the Premier League title by being ready to pounce on any Liverpool slip up.
And West Ham in a bid to salvage a hugely disappointing season which has fallen way below expectations following a £155m summer splurge on nine new players.
One of those players has been a big hit in Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
But it sums the Hammers up under Julen Lopetegui that the club finally spent good money to bring in a quality right-back and he ends up playing more often at left-back due to the failure to address that position.
With the January window now open, the east Londoners are seemingly intent on righting that wrong, though.
Because West Ham and Arsenal have agreed a transfer deal as player gives his answer claims a journalist.
Hammers fans have been frustrated at seeing Wan-Bissaka being played at left-back.
West Ham lost at Man City largely due to Vladimir Coufal’s inability to deal with Savinho. Fans feel it would have been very different if Wan-Bissaka had been marking him.
Playing players out of position to the detriment of the team has become a recurring theme under Lopetegui.
Now football correspondent Graeme Bailey has revealed West Ham agreed a deal in principal with the Gunners to sign left-back Kieran Tierney.
Kieran Tierney gives West Ham his answer claims journalist. So too had Brentford, Leicester and a number of foreign clubs. Tierney has been linked with West Ham on several occasions in the last 18 months.
But as soon as the Hammers got the opportunity to see if the Scottish left-back fancied the move, they were given an abrupt answer.
Bailey has confirmed to Hammers News Tierney wants to rejoin boyhood club Celtic instead with talks now ongoing to try and make that happen.
Tierney’s contract runs out this summer and it is claimed he had already made it clear he wanted to move back to Celtic.
Talks have been held with Celtic about a pre-contract ahead of a move in the summer. As a fellow English club, West Ham would be unable to do that whereas Celtic can as a team from another nation.
Left-back clearly on Hammers’ January shopping list. But Bailey has confirmed that Arsenal and Tierney would ideally like to see him finalise a permanent exit in the winter window with ‘talks ongoing for the best avenue to achieve this’.
West Ham’s top priority this window must be to sign a box-to-box midfielder and striker.
Goalkeeper and left-back should be high on the agenda too.
Whether a move for Tierney is the right kind of recruitment profile West Ham should be looking to is another matter altogether.
In fairness the 27-year-old is younger than both Emerson Palmier (30) and Aaron Cresswell (35).
But West Ham supporters would argue the club should be building the team around young, hungry players.
