West Ham United wanted Odilon Kossounou but failed with a cheeky deadline day loan bid for the Bayer Leverkusen defender.
The Hammers have put plenty of funds into bolstering their back line this summer.
Centre backs Nayef Aguerd and Thilo Kehrer arrived, as did left back Emerson Palmieri as David Moyes re-tooled his back four.
Yet there were links with more defenders around the deadline given that West Ham seemed open to letting Craig Dawson leave.
Jan Bednarek and Nico Elvedi were two names mentioned, but it seems that West Ham also looked at Kossounou before keeping Dawson.
West Ham United wanted Odilon Kossounou
The Sun report that West Ham made a late move to try and sign Kossounou on loan from Leverkusen.
However, West Ham only offered £1million to take Kossounou on loan and Leverkusen ultimately said no.
Leverkusen wanted more money and a potential purchase option for next summer, but West Ham didn’t offer that and ended up keeping Dawson.
Kossounou, 21, joined Leverkusen from Club Brugge in 2021 having impressed in Belgium and also in Sweden with Hammarby.
Leverkusen paid a cool £25million for Kossounou and seemingly viewed him as a star of the future.
The Ivorian has shown potential at centre back and right back, with his versatility potentially very appealing to David Moyes.
Kossounou has only played 111 minutes of Bundesliga football this season and is in danger of slipping down Gerardo Seoane’s pecking order.
Hailed as ‘extremely quick’ by Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes, Kossounou clearly has talent and potential in his locker.
West Ham were allegedly stunned that Kossounou could be available in August but seemingly didn’t come up with the offer to tempt Leverkusen.
Kossounou may be one for West Ham to target in January or next summer if his Leverkusen situation hasn’t changed, with Moyes always looking for ways to improve this Hammers squad.
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