‘Really gifted player’ seals £17m move after West Ham made bid for him

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Denis Zakaria has completed a £17 million move to Monaco after holding talks over a switch to the Premier League with West Ham United. 

Only a couple of weeks ago, The Athletic reported that there were a few divisions developing behind the scenes at the London Stadium. Manager David Moyes allegedly wanted West Ham United to prioritise ‘proven’ Premier League talent. 

Tim Steidten, the technical director with a background in the Bundesliga, saw things rather differently. He felt the Hammers would be better off casting their net a little wider, in the knowledge that there was better value to be found on the continent. 

Now with James Ward-Prowse joining Edson Alvarez at the London Stadium – the former arriving from Southampton and the latter from Ajax – it seems that West Ham may have found a way to marry both approaches together. 

If Ward-Prowse is a typical Moyes signing, then Steidten probably deserves much of the credit for the latter’s arrival. The former Bayer Leverkusen chief was pictured on a private jet with Alvarez last week.

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The Conference League winners reportedly submitted an £11 million bid for Denis Zakaria in July too. But talks with the Juventus enforcer stalled as West Ham shifted their focus to Ward-Prowse, Alvarez and – for a time at least – Manchester United’s Scott McTominay. 

As such, Monaco found themselves with a relatively free run at th’Reae Switzerland international; completing a £17 million deal while securing Zakaria on a four-year deal. 

“Of course (I am happy),” beams Monaco coach Adi Hutter, who worked with Zakaria in the Bundesliga with Borussia Monchengladbach and in Switzerland with BSC Young Boys (Get France Football News). 

“We have been speaking about it for two or three weeks. I spoke with him yesterday and (he said) he would be very happy to come to AS Monaco. I’ve known him since 2015 when I arrived in Bern and he was 18. He was a really gifted, talented player.  

“Then after two years he left for Borussia Monchengladbach, and then I trained with him a second time there. This will be a third time.”

West Ham’s focus, with two weeks of the window remaining, shifts to a centre-half and a centre-forward. A deal for Harry Maguire appears to be in limbo, however. And a Gianluca Scamacca replacement still needs to be sourced.