West Ham continue to negotiate with Lazio over Felipe Anderson’s possible switch to the London Stadium with the player’s personal terms unlikely to be a problem.
We understand that the right sided midfielder – currently earning around £48k a week in Serie A – is looking for £80k which is well within the Hammers budget without affecting the Financial Fair Play regulations.
A figure of £60k was reported in the Italian media but we have learned that £80,000 is the reality.
Meanwhile, the two clubs are still trying to agree a fee for the player but rumours Chelsea are also interested are not accurate and may have been brought into play by Lazio in the hope of forcing up the price.
The Hammers have made an offer of £26.5 million plus £7 million in extras with the player keen to make the move into the Premier League.
Should it happen it will be interesting to see the destiny of Michael Antonio on whom Palace are still being reported as holding an interest.
We need Antonio to stay even more now. Unless of course he wants to go.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Antonio wanted to move on since that’s what he has done his whole career, moving to a new club every year or two. I hope he stays though since his preferred position as he has mentioned more than once is on the left wing, the position he played at Nottingham forest. So if he is played in his preferred position there would be no problem with balancing our squad by playing Anderson or whoever on the right side.
I agree that we should keep Antonio – Manu’s unfortunate injury underlines the fact that we need a squad rather than a first eleven
Definitely keep Antonio. Apart from his first season with us when he impressed, he’s been injury prone ever since.Having Anderson will allow the pair to share the right wing role or however Pellegrini wants them to play and therefore hopefully keeping Antonio away from injuries.
He’s already shown what he’s capable of and scares the hell out of other teams when he’s in full flight. More so, it would cost us a fortune to replace him with a like for like player.
I can see Anderson doing exactly the same thing. Would be great with one on each wing feeding Arnie, Chich or Pavon.