It’s proving to be a fruitful and busy summer transfer window for Julen Lopetegui and West Ham United.
Exciting Brazilian talent, Luis Guilherme, keeper, Wes Foderingham, and Lopetegui’s former Wolves captain, Max Kilman, have all been captured, with plenty of other irons in the fire according to CaughtOffside sources with knowledge of their transfer plans.
The latest player to be linked with the club is French World Cup winner, N’Golo Kante.
West Ham want N’Golo Kante
Now at Al Ittihad, the Hammers have already met with the former Chelsea midfielder’s agents, and are informed about his situation and the terms of any deal should things progress.
Lopetegui has approved the transfer of the 33-year-old, however, CaughtOffside sources understand that at this stage, Al-Ittihad has no plans to sell Kante.
Indeed, sources note that the directors of the Saudi Pro League club said in a meeting with Kante’s agents that they would not approve this transfer under any circumstances.
In addition, new coach, Laurent Blanc, has already met with his countryman and said that he trusts him.
Saudi sources also say that Kante himself is happy to be at Al-Ittihad, though interestingly he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the Premier League again in the future.
With money seemingly no object in Saudi, players wanting to move back to Europe from there would only be doing so from a professional, rather than financial, standpoint.
Given that Kante is already approaching his mid thirties, the window of opportunity for him to return to the English top-flight is likely to be narrow, and therefore this could condition his decision.