The Premier League battle for Maxime Lopez is hotting up with Aston Villa and West Ham United reportedly targeting Marseille’s Ligue 1 playmaker.
Aston Villa have made an offer of around £10.5 million for Marseille midfielder Maxime Lopez, according to ArenaNapoli, as they look to beat West Ham to the youngster’s signature.
It’s going to be a long old summer for Marseille fans.
One of the biggest and most historic clubs in France were already planning to sell a number of key players to avoid Financial Fair Play sanctions – and that was before the global health crisis which threatens to turn these monetary worries into a nightmare of seismic proportions.
The Star claimed last week that Marseille had even taken to offering Lopez around to clubs in the Premier League, with West Ham and Tottenham given the opportunity to snap up a player who none other than Zinedine Zidane rates very highly.
But, according to reports in Italy, Aston Villa have made the first move.
Dean Smith’s side have put a bid of around £10.5 million on the table. In an ideal world, Marseille would be able to command around £18 million but Lopez is out of contract next summer and that means they may be forced to accept a reduced fee.
West Ham remain interested but they, it is claimed, are unwilling to pay a penny more than £13 million. L’OM will no doubt be hoping that Villa and West Ham end up creating something of a bidding war which would drive up Lopez’s price-tag but, for now, it seems more than likely that he will go for quite a bit less than £18 million.
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