West Ham have bid of up to £33.5m accepted for Lille’s Amadou Onana
West Ham have had a bid worth up €40m (£33.5m) accepted for the Lille midfielder Amadou Onana. David Moyes has been looking to add more depth behind Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek in central midfield after Mark Noble retired and Alex Kral returned to Spartak Moscow at the end of an unsuccessful loan.
Moyes did not consider his business done after signing the 23-year-old midfielder Flynn Downes from Swansea last month. West Ham, who are close to agreeing a deal to sign the Burnley forward Maxwel Cornet after having an offer of about £17m rejected on Tuesday night, have been tracking Onana all summer and are set to discuss personal terms with the 20-year-old.
Lille have been holding out for about €40m for the Belgian and West Ham have agreed to pay an initial €35m (£29.3m) plus €5m in add-ons.
West Ham have been busy this summer. Along with bringing in Downes, they have signed Nayef Aguerd, Gianluca Scamacca and Alphonse Areola.
Moyes wants further additions as he tries to build a squad capable of finishing in the top six. West Ham want a left-sided attacker and are targeting Cornet, with Filip Kostic increasingly likely to stay at Eintracht Frankfurt. Cornet, who has a £17.5m release clause, is also a target for Everton, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.
West Ham also want a left-back, with Leicester’s Luke Thomas in their sights, and are monitoring the Blackburn forward Ben Brereton Díaz.
West Ham have loaned the leftback Arthur Masuaku to Besiktas. The French centre-back Issa Diop is a target for Fulham.
Kasper Schmeichel’s move to Nice has been confirmed, in a busy couple of days for the French club that has also seen Aaron Ramsey and Mattia Viti arrive. The goalkeeper was a Premier League winner with Leicester, who announced the transfer by tweeting: “After 11 years with #lcfc, Kasper Schmeichel has joined Nice, ending his incredible spell with the Foxes.” The 35year-old has joined the Ligue 1 club on a three-year contract.
A Nice statement read: “After more than 500 appearances for Leicester, Kasper Schmeichel has been convinced to become part of the project at Nice. OGC Nice is delighted with the arrival of the Euro 2020 semi-finalist, and is counting on his qualities and personality to help the club achieve its goals.”