Anderlecht chief says Palace made bid for West Ham target Dendoncker

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West Ham were interested in Anderlecht midfielder Leander Dendoncker for much of January.

Belgian outlet Sporza has claimed Crystal Palace made a deadline-day move to sign Anderlecht midfielder Leander Dendoncker, but general manager Herman Van Holsbeeck claims the bid was too late in the day.

Sky Sports reported on deadline day that West Ham had a bid for 22-year-old enforcer Dendoncker turned down as David Moyes tried to add a central midfielder to his squad.

Instead, the Hammers managed to only bring Joao Mario to the London Stadium on loan from Inter Milan while landing surprise striker target Jordan Hugill from Championship side Preston North End.

Van Holsbeeck claimed, though, that the Hammers were not the only Premier League side interested in Dendoncker, with Crystal Palace also supposedly making a move to sign the Belgium international. Time prevented a move, however.

The report claims Palace made a “good bid last night” in an article on Thursday, before quoting Van Holsbeeck.

“Especially the time of the negotiations was unfortunate. If we had received that offer on 2 January, we would have a whole month to negotiate and find an alternative,” Van Holsbeeck said.

“Dendoncker has the potential to ever play in a better league, everyone knows, but negotiating on deadline day was not negotiable for the club, and I tried to explain that to him and his surroundings in a serene way.

“It is now up to the player and the club to figure out how we will deal with that in the next five months, and tomorrow or Monday I will talk to him and his environment about it.”

Dendoncker has become renowned as one of the best young players currently plying his trade outside of Europe’s top five leagues, as he remains with Anderlecht in Belgium instead transferring to England, Spain, Italy, France or Germany.

With talks scheduled over what his plans are until the next transfer window, both West Ham and Crystal Palace could re-enter the race to sign Dendoncker this summer.