West Ham United want Hans Vanaken and the Club Brugge star is seemingly pushing to make the move happen before the transfer deadline.
The Hammers have endured a dismal start to the season, losing three times in a row against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion.
David Moyes has admitted that he feels this West Ham team has grown stale, hence the need for new signings.
Alphonse Areola, Nayef Aguerd, Thilo Kehrer, Maxwel Cornet, Flynn Downes and Gianluca Scamacca have all signed but Moyes still wants more.
A hot name over the last week or so has been Vanaken, a player West Ham have targeted for a long time now – and a deal may finally be on the cards.
West Ham United want Hans Vanaken
Reports from Belgium last week suggested that West Ham had offered €10million (£8.5million) for Vanaken but Club Brugge rejected that.
The Belgian side had no plans to sell this summer and sent West Ham packing.
West Ham’s renewed interest comes having attempted to sign Vanaken in 2020, but the giant midfielder suggested it just wasn’t the right time.
Fast forward two years and West Ham are back and will now have real hope of finally signing Vanaken after all.
That’s because Vanaken has publicly signalled that he really wants to sign for West Ham this time.
The Daily Mail quote Vanaken as saying that there will be new talks over a deal on Monday and that he feels this is his last chance to make a big move to the Premier League.
“Clearly there is interest, enough has been written about it,” said Vanaken. “New talks tomorrow and we’ll see where it ends. I think it could be my last chance and I want to do it,” he added.
Vanaken turns 30 in just a couple of days and clearly feels this opportunity is never going to arrive again.
Vanaken has been an incredible servant to Club Brugge, turning out almost 350 times since arriving from Lokeren back in 2015.
102 goals and 73 assists in that time is an outstanding record and Vanaken may now feel that it’s time to test himself outside of Belgium.
Club Brugge boss Carl Hoefkens has hailed Vanaken as ‘incredible’ but their days working together seem numbered.
A giant threat from attacking midfield at 6ft 5in tall, Vanaken is an interesting profile for West Ham especially with Tomas Soucek already in the side.
West Ham will now hope to get this deal wrapped up in the coming days, giving Vanaken quite the birthday present.
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