West Ham United are offering £11 million for Denis Zakaria with the Premier League-bound Swiss international no longer part of Juventus’ first-team plans.
Evern the most hard-nosed West Ham supporter, at this stage, wants a resolution to the Declan Rice saga.
To put it simply, the sooner their talismanic captain departs – a £105 million move to Arsenal seemingly on the verge of completion for a fortnight now – the sooner West Ham can start restructuring their squad and re-investing that nine-figure sum in a fleet of new signings.
The Hammers already appear to have missed out on Harvey Barnes to Newcastle United; left in limbo by the snail-pace progress of the Rice deal.
The good news, however, is that a long-awaited – and seemingly imminent – resolution should allow West Ham to step up their pursuit of a player who will be expected to go some way to replacing the most expensive British footballer of all time.
Declan Rice out, Denis Zakaria in at West Ham
David Moyes’ Conference League winners have been in talks with Juventus about Denis Zakaria for at least a week. According to Sky Italia, West Ham have now offered £11 million for the former Borussia Monchengladbach enforcer.
Time will tell whether that is enough for Juventus to cash in. But Zakaria is most certainly up for sale; Fabrizio Romano reporting that he is one of a number of senior players likely to be left at home when the Bianconeri jet out to the USA for their pre-season tour.
“Leonardo Bonucci, Weston McKennie, Arthur Melo and Denis Zakaria are out of Juventus first-team,” Romano writes on Twitter. “Excluded and out of the project.
“All of them are available on the market with immediate effect.”
Zakaria spent last season on loan at Chelsea. He struggled to nail down a regular sport in the Blues midfield, but his aggression, his athleticism and his ball-carrying ability will be well received by a West Ham side about to lose a man who became the first Hammers captain to lift a European trophy since the legendary Sir Bobby Moore.
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