Borussia Dortmund have made it clear that West Ham United will not face any competition from them as Ajax midfielder Edson Alvarez prepares to join the Premier League outfit.
David Moyes’ Conference League winners appear to have gone from zero to 60 in the blink of an eye, as far as the transfer window is concerned.
At last, that Declan Rice windfall is being reinvested. Better late than never, right? West Ham have agreed £30 million deals for both Harry Maguire and James Ward-Prowse with Manchester United and Southampton respectively, while Edson Alvarez was pictured flying in for a medical alongside West Ham director Tim Steidten earlier this week.
West Ham to sign Edson Alvarez from Ajax
At a rumoured £35 million, Alvarez will be the most expensive of West Ham’s three new arrivals (BBC).
And while German giants Borussia Dortmund have been heavily linked with the Mexico international themselves, CEO Hans Joachim Watzke insists that there will be no late hi-jack from Signal Iduna Park.
Not with Marcel Sabitzer through the door already, anyway.
“Manchester City would say ‘we’ll just take them both (Sabitzer and Alvarez)’! But we have to spend our money wisely. In the end, Marcel Sabitzer was the best solution,” Watzke tells BILD, indicating that Alvarez was only viewed as a back-up option behind the former Manchester United man.
“It’s (sporting director Sebastien Kehl’s) job to always show us different alternatives. And he does it very well.
“As far as Alvarez is concerned, we never got as far as the media reported. We never negotiated with Ajax. If we were on the verge of a transfer, Ajax would certainly have heard from us. But there were alternatives A, B and C.”
Alvarez is a more defensively-minded midfielder, compared to Rice at least. The 6ft 4ins enforcer will bring steel and silk in equal measure, while allowing Ward-Prowse to push on and influence things further forward.
“He is completing the last bumps of the transfer,” Ajax coach Maurice Steijn told ESPN on Tuesday.
“Can he be replaced? We still have to look at that. In principle, we don’t really have such a player yet who really takes care of the balance.”
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