By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
Reports from Mail Sport claim Arsenal have added Aaron Wan-Bissaka to their shortlist, although not at West Ham’s reported £25 million valuation.
If the report is accurate, I wouldn’t dismiss this one out of hand.
As Claret & Hugh revealed exclusively last week, Lazio had already submitted an offer worth around €10 million for Wan-Bissaka, with West Ham understood to be holding out for something much closer to €20 million.
West Ham Are No Pushovers
There doesn’t appear to be any realistic route back into the first team for Wan-Bissaka.
Nuno Espírito Santo appeared to lose faith in the defender last season after he failed to return immediately following DR Congo’s World Cup qualifier, instead attending a presidential celebration. From that point onwards, Kyle Walker-Peters established himself as West Ham’s first-choice right-back.
With that in mind, a transfer probably suits all parties.
However, West Ham are no pushovers anymore.
The club have already banked significant fees from the sales of Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville, helping offset the financial impact of relegation from the Premier League.
That means there is no need to accept low-ball offers simply because another club thinks West Ham are under pressure to sell.
Pay Up Or Move On
If Arsenal are genuinely interested, then I suspect there is a deal to be done.
Personally, I think somewhere around the €20 million mark would probably be enough to get West Ham talking.
But if the Gunners are hoping to prise Wan-Bissaka away on the cheap, I think they’ll be disappointed.
West Ham’s message this summer has been pretty clear. If you want one of our players, you’ll have to pay up or jog on.
Not sure how much of this is click bait.
What playing time is he likely to get at Arsenal they appear to be well stocked with defenders.
Not all players have good seasons year in and year out
Wisbaka and Nuno need to solve this problem which would be best for both parties.
A motivated, on-form AWB is one of the best three or four RBs in the country. If he’s determined to go, then best he does based on the second half of the season. £20m – £25m is a reasonable price.
I’m curious Gonzo, did you deliberately leave out the bit reported at the time that it was not his choice, but a ploy orchestrated by the DRC leadership, forcing the players to remain behind for the celebrations, or was that just BS put out at the time? Just wondering because it has always seemed that Nuno is very quick to add players to his naughty list rather than work it out. He is the common denominator in all of these reports and I have to admit, I am not a Nuno fan
Let’s stick to Pounds Sterling as we do not use Euro’s and shouldn’t have to do the maths to convert them either!
As oil is priced in $, transfers seem more and more to be priced in €. Just keep the currency rates and a calculator close to hand 😁.
Smart and clever ……….. but immature answer
I think you are taking a wrong turn on this one Cat.
My first sentence was neither “smart” nor “clever”, it was merely a statement of fact given that all the mainstream news channels now seem to report transfer fees in Euros………. including our own C&H!
My second sentence was merely a light hearted suggestion, complete with grinning emoji, in the light of what has effectively become a ‘fait accompli’.
“Immature”……… ? Perhaps you could expand?