William Carvalho has been a publicly persued target for West Ham, but a club-record deal which looked certain to happen has yet to come to fruition and the Sporting Lisbon midfielder now looks set to go elsewhere.
Just last week The Gurdian reported the Hammers’ manager Slaven Bilic as being “quite confident” in securing a deal for the Portuguese midfielder. The report suggested that Lisbon were happy to part ways with the European Champion but valued the star to be worth £37.5m, which indicated West Ham only needed to increase their £32.5m offer by £5m to reach an agreement.
However, TalkSport have now reported that AS Monaco will look to hijack a deal for the Hammers’ target. The report cites comments from L’Equipe that with the French champions being hit by a number of departures this summer that they will turn their attention to signing the talented 25-year-old.
West Ham’s start to the season has been almost catastrophic with three losses from three. With them now looking increasingly likely to miss out on securing a deal for Carvalho they will not only be considered as surprise relegation candidates but this will also throw Slaven Bilic’s future into serious doubt.