West Ham have made two calls to broker a deal for double flop Denis Zakaria as a cheap and underwhelming Declan Rice replacement.
As the race to sign Declan Rice from West Ham really starts to heat up, a new report suggests the Hammers could be close to signing a replacement.
West Ham have been linked with a plethora of midfielders of late from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Edson Alvarez and Sofyan Amrabat to Yunus Musah, Joao Palhinha and James Ward-Prowse.
Given Rice is a generational hybrid midfield talent, West Ham will likely have to sign two different midfielders to replace Rice.
With Manuel Lanzini departing too, that is a necessity.
West Ham make two calls to broker deal for double flop Denis Zakaria as cheap Declan Rice replacement claims report
Now Man City have rivalled Arsenal with an official bid to West Ham for Rice, focus it seems is already on getting a deal done for one of the talisman’s replacements at the London Stadium.
West Ham have made two calls to broker a deal for double flop Denis Zakaria as a cheap and underwhelming Rice replacement.
Italian transfer reporter Gianluca Di Marzio has claimed that Juventus and West Ham are now in negotiations over a move for Swiss midfielder Zakaria.
“There have already been two calls between Hammers and Juventus and the player could return to the Premier League on a permanent basis,” Di Marzio states.
Cheap and underwhelming
If true then it is seriously underwhelming for West Ham fans.
Zakaria is a 26-year-old Switzerland international who Juve purchased from Borussia Monchengladbach in January 2022 for €10m (£8.5m).
But he completely failed to make an impact at Juventus, playing just 15 games.
Zakaria was then loaned out to Chelsea last season for a £1.5m fee with an option to buy.
But he fared even worse at Chelsea, making 11 appearances and the Blues decided not to activate their option to purchase the Swiss defensive midfielder.
Replacing Rice is the most important transfer the Hammers will make in years – is Zakaria really the right man?
West Ham are said to be negotiating Juve down from their £17m valuation.
West Ham boss David Moyes appears to see something in the player, though, if reports are to be believed.
The Daily Mail and Football Italia are labelling the negotiations as ‘advanced talks’ off the back of Di Marzio’s claims of two phone calls between West Ham and Juve.
Hammers fans sceptical over the move will be hoping that isn’t the case. The player has flopped at both Juventus and Chelsea. And replacing Rice is the most important transfer West Ham will make in years.
That was always going to be a challenge. So if Zakaria is the man Moyes wants to take over the defensive midfield duties, it will have to be complemented with a very good attacking midfielder to compensate.
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