One of the most wanted players in this summer’s transfer market is Nice’s brilliant former Barcelona defender, Jean-Clair Todibo.
The 24-year-old Frenchman was thought to be one of Man United’s priority captures given that the Ligue Un club are also owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS group, however, nothing has progressed to this point because of UEFA’s ruling on multi-club ownership per The Athletic (subscription required).
West Ham are known to want to sign the player, with CaughtOffside columnist and transfer expert, Fabrizio Romano, detailing their interest on X (formerly Twitter).
?????? West Ham are still interested in Jean-Clair Todibo but he’s giving total priority to Juventus now.
Todibo wants Juventus; the club need to sell players in order to try again. ?? https://t.co/bUbAjfYm9y
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 17, 2024
Romano also states that Todibo’s absolute priority is to move to Juventus, however, the Serie A giant need to sell players before they can buy, and that puts them at a slight disadvantage at this juncture.
West Ham target Todibo wants Juve move
If the Hammers can land any more of their targets in the interim, it would show Todibo that they mean business and there’s a slight chance that the player could therefore be persuaded to change his mind.
You can never say never in football, and as recently as this week we saw Monaco furious with Georges Mikautadze after the Georgian had already agreed a medical with them, only to go and agree a move to their Ligue Un rivals, Lyon.
From West Ham’s point of view, they’re beginning to build a squad for Julen Lopetegui that it seems they hope would rival the best in the division.
Todibo would certainly fall into that category, and so technical director, Tim Steidten, needs to keep working at the coal face in order keep the lines of communication open.
As the saying goes ‘it ain’t over till it’s over…’