West Ham United manager Manuel Pellegrini had been trying to sign a new midfielder who can replace the injured Manuel Lanzini during the 2018-19 season.
Manuel Lanzini is currently out with a serious knee injury and the Hammers need a player who can fill in his boots for the next campaign – despite signing Jack Wilshere from Arsenal.
And it seems that the London outfit were after Celtic FC Olivier Ntcham who had a wonderful last season under Brendan Rodgers in Scotland.
Ntcham joined current Premier League champions Manchester City in 2012 but the Frenchman did not make a single appearance for the Citizens, instead ended up spending two seasons out on loan to Genoa.
He was eventually sold of SPFL side, Celtic FC last summer for a reported £4.5 million fee.
Olivier Ntcham signed a four-year deal with the Bhoys and the midfielder has impressed in his first season itself – scoring nine goals in 47 appearances.
Manuel Pellegrini was said to be interested in signing the midfielder but now if reports are to be believed then the Hoops have informed West Ham United that the midfielder is not for sale – not atleast during the summer transfer window.
A report also states that the Hammers have made an official move for the 22-year-old but Celtic have already made their intentions clear about Ntcham.
West Ham have made an approach to Celtic for midfielder Olivier Ntcham.
[Source: @lequipe] pic.twitter.com/JqoHhcruM5
— West Ham News (@whufc_news) July 27, 2018
So now with Olivier Ntcham out of bounds, the Hammers might have to shift their focus back to Joao Mario who spent the second half of the 2017-18 season at the London stadium.
The Hammers did have a permanent buy clause at the end of the season which they did not exercise and now some reports suggest that the club want him back on yet another loan deal.
Inter Milan though are not interested in sending Mario out on a loan spell and want to offload him permanently for a fee in the region of £26 million.
If West Ham could have gotten their hands on Olivier Ntcham then he would have come at an estimated price range of £10 to £15 million. But now it Pellegrini wants to move for Joao Mario then he will have to shell out a lot of cash.
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