Report: Saint Etienne centre back rumour gathers pace

Sky Sports and the London Evening Standard are running reports that  West Ham have made a bid worth up to £36million for Saint-Etienne centre-back Wesley Fofana

The Standard  claims the Hammers have tabled a bid worth £25m with £11m in add-ons while Sky claims it was a £33m offer which includes an initial fee of £23m and up to £10m in add-ons.

The Irons have seemingly given up hope of signing England defender James Tarkowski with Burnley wanting £40m and David Sullivan saying they will not blow their whole transfer budget on one player.

The 19-year-old French defender made 24 appearances for Saint-Etienne last season as they qualified for the Europa League and made the French Cup Final under Claude Puel.

Fofana has told Saint-Etienne he wants to leave to play in the Premier League. He is also a target for Leicester and for whom he has said he wants to join.

Last week French reports suggested Leicester City had a €32m (£29.5m) offer for the centre-back rejected by Saint-Etienne

L’Equipe reported that the latest offer was Leicester City’s third to Saint-Etienne, with previous bids going in at €25m (£23m) and €28.5m (£26.2m).

But even with the inclusion of a 10 per cent sell-on fee, Puel and Saint-Etienne are standing firm it was claimed.

Speaking yesterday, Sullivan told Jim White on Talksport: “I cannot say for sure that we are going to sign anyone. As each day passes I get more depressed, there is no point in saying otherwise. We are not Roman Abramovich, we are not the king of Abu Dhabi who owns Manchester City. We’re short of defenders.”