Owner explains why £13m Alexis Claude-Maurice rejected West Ham and Norwich

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West Ham United and Norwich City both reportedly made bids for Nice striker Claude-Maurice – will he play Premier League football in the future?

West Ham United and Norwich City both made bids for Lorient striker Alexis Claude-Maurice over the summer, the Ligue 2 club’s president Loic Fery has told Get France Football News.

As Fery himself alludes to, it is no secret that the France U21 striker was a man in demand over the summer.

Claude-Maurice netted 14 goals in a brilliant breakthrough season in the French second tier to attract attention from clubs across the channel.

West Ham bid £9 million, according to Le10 Sport, before turning their attention to Sebastian Haller and Albian Ajeti while Norwich City offered a club-record £15 million on transfer deadline day, as reported by Le Telegramme.

But Fery has now revealed that the chance to play for Nice, who have big ambitions now with Britain’s richest man at the helm, was simply too good for Claude-Maurice to turn down.

“He felt that he needed a sort of intermediate step before going into the Premier League. We had two firm bids from two Premier League sides, which I think is not a secret, West Ham and then Norwich later on, who basically made competing offers,” Fery said of Claude-Maurice, who joined Nice for £13 million.

“So I guess, I don’t want to speak for him, but he made the career choice to go through a club like Nice and feel that he would be able, especially with the ambition that the club has and the new owner (Sir Jim) Ratcliffe, he feels that that club will be in a position to compete at the highest level in Europe and he will pursue his development over there.

“I think all the talents that we have seen and the efficiency that made him the best player in Ligue 2 last year, I wouldn’t be surprised that you see him in the Premier League in the next few years.”

Claude-Maurice has struggled to make the step up to Ligue 1 so far, however, failing to score in four matches for Patrick Vieira’s goal-shy Nice.

So the 21-year-old needs to do much better than that if he wants to fire Nice into Europe or encourage Premier League clubs to bang on his door again.