Manager hails ‘excellent’ £25m West Ham ace and suggests he could sign him

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Torino coach Ivan Juric has hinted that West Ham United loanee Nikola Vlasic could return to Serie A for 2023/24 with the Premier League outfit willing to let him go. 

Any hopes the Croatian may have had of returning to the London Stadium and belatedly winning over David Moyes appeared to go up in smoke as soon as Lucas Paqueta found his Premier League legs. 

West Ham’s balletic Brazilian has been outstanding in recent weeks; a magical assist for Manuel Lanzini against Leeds United his very own coup de grace.  

And, with Paqueta threatening to take a stranglehold on the ‘number ten’ spot on Moyes’ team-sheet, it’s hard to see where Nikola Vlasic fits in should he return to England following an excellent spell on loan at Torino. 

Highly underwhelming during two separate spells in the Premier League; the one-time Everton misfit has a £12 million option-to-buy clause in his Torino contract. The Granata submitted a lowball £7 million bid on Friday. Tough it remains to be seen whether West Ham would be willing to accept such a fee for a player who cost them a staggering £25 million less than two years ago. 

West Ham United set to sell Nikola Vlasic

Throughout months of sustained speculation over in Italy regarding Vlasic’s future, Juric has never made any attempt to hide his admiration for the former CSKA Moscow talisman. 

And, without saying it directly during his latest press conference, the Torino boss certainly sounded like a man hopeful of retaining Vlasic beyond the current campaign.

“Vlasic and (fellow loanee Alexei) Miranchuk are not under examination. We are very satisfied with the year they had; with how they played, how they behaved,” Juric tells Calciomercato.

“They both did excellent with the prospect of doing even better next year.”

Vlasic, who has spoken openly about his love of life in Turin, is not the only West Ham player facing an uncertain future. Lanzini could return to his native Argentina. The biggest questions marks, meanwhile, appear to be hanging over the head of one Declan Rice.