CandH Exclusive by Hughie Southon
West Ham have tonight revealed exclusively to Claret and Hugh they are now close to signing Manchester Cirty winger Carlos Borges from Manchester City
The fee is understood to be in the region of £15 million but the bad news is that he is the only player anywhere close to becoming a new Hammer.
With just three weeks left to until we travel to Bournemouth for the start of the season, unless David Moyes makes rapid progress in the window we could go into the campaign short of squad numbers.
Concerned about the situation we simply asked our key source at the club whether we were anywhere near bringing new players in.
He said: “Only the boy from Man City, otherwise it is very hard work and the fees crazy. We offered £50m for the Fulham player Palhina which was rejected and we won’t be going any higher.”
Borges joined City from Sporting in 2014 and the winger is now regarded as one of the most talented players in any English youth academy.
The Portugal Under-19 international is said to be frustrated at the Etihad with Pep Guardiola’s offering him little chance of getting regular first-team opportunities.
West Ham would be buying his potential…….. Borges is unlikely to be selected for the first team squad against Bournemouth. Priority must be a replacement for Rice’s position and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the club improves their bid for Fulham’s Palhinha in the next week or so. West Ham need potential replacements for Scamacca, Ings or Antonio. though I don’t expect to see all three leave in this window. We don’t need another centre-half just yet.
Another winger. Are we the RAF? Centre half? Defensive midfielder? Just seems like – ooh better get somebody otherwise it looks bad. News – it still looks bad!