According to L’Equipe and Calciomercato, West Ham United only offered €12million (£11million) to sign Lille full back Zeki Celik.
The Hammers were desperate to sign a right back before the deadline, having seen Ryan Fredericks go down with an injury against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
In the end, West Ham chose to sign Vladimir Coufal, raiding Slavia Prague for the second time this year having signed Tomas Soucek in January.
Coufal enjoyed a superb debut against Leicester City on Sunday, but he wasn’t the only right back West Ham were looking at signing.
It’s claimed that West Ham were keen to sign Lille star Celik, but were only prepared to offer €12million (£11million), which Lille rejected.
They ended up signing Coufal for around half the price, with Lille deciding they wanted €15million (£13.7million) for Celik – a price West Ham wouldn’t pay.
Celik, 23, has impressed for Lille since signing from Istanbulspor in 2018, showing the he can contribute going forward as well as being solid defensively.
A Turkish international, Celik will likely make a move in the near future, but don’t expect to see him at West Ham after they landed Coufal.
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