West Ham United have a strong suitor for defender Issa Diop with Lyon now pushing to bring him back to France this summer.
Reports from L’Equipe last month suggested that Lyon were eyeing up Diop as a replacement for Jerome Boateng this summer.
It now seems that Lyon have attempted to be… let’s call it resourceful as they attempt to bring in Diop.
L’Equipe now claim that Lyon have held talks with Diop’s representatives in light of the recent Europa League meeting between the two sides.
West Ham beat Lyon 3-0 on Thursday night and are now into the semi-finals, with Diop actually featuring on Thursday.
Lyon are offering a ‘very attractive’ salary to Drop, believing they have a real chance of bringing Diop back to France.
It’s stated that West Ham are willing to sell for just €10million (£8.3million) with Diop out of contract at the end of next season.
That’s a hefty loss for West Ham having paid £22million to sign Diop from Toulouse back in the summer of 2018.
Diop showed real potential in his first season at West Ham but just hasn’t been able to kick on.
Once hailed by Jose Mourinho, Diop has been error-prone in recent times and particularly struggled against non-league side Kidderminster Harriers in February.
The only reason Diop is featuring at the moment is because Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna are both missing.
If David Moyes had his full strength squad, you could make an argument for Diop being fourth choice centre back.
With West Ham being linked with a number of centre backs this summer, it makes sense to move Diop on before he gets any closer to leaving for free.
Lyon seem more than willing to swoop in this summer, but it will be up to Diop and whether he wants to return to France.
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