West Ham are poised to sign Soungoutou Magassa in a deal worth €20m (£17.2m) after agreeing personal terms with the Monaco midfielder. The move for the France Under-21 international is a major boost for Graham Potter, who is under growing pressure after a dreadful start to the season.
Potter has been desperately hunting for midfield reinforcements and faced a tense wait over whether the transfer would go ahead. West Ham submitted an offer of €17m plus €3m for Magassa last Friday and did not take long to reach an agreement with Monaco. Complications arose when West Ham’s bid for Magassa was swiftly followed by Nottingham Forest entering the running for the 21-year-old.
Multiple sources inside the London Stadium feared it would be hard to convince players to join after Potter’s side lost 5-1 to Chelsea on Friday. There have been points over the past four days when it seemed that West Ham, who have also made an offer to sign the Forest midfielder Ibrahim Sangaré on loan, were going to miss out on one of their top targets.
Yet they refused to give up on Magassa. Potter spoke to him on Sunday and West Ham’s recruitment chief, Kyle Macaulay, played a crucial role in convincing the Frenchman to join. Talks over personal terms ramped up late on Monday and continued on Tuesday morning. There was relief when Magassa flew to London on Tuesday night to sign, pending the results of his medical.
West Ham’s scouts have done extensive work on Magassa, who made 31 appearances in all competitions for Monaco last season, and see him as an ideal fit. Their ponderous midfield is woefully short of speed and energy. Potter is also looking to add creativity and does not intend to stop with Magassa. West Ham are looking for a No 8 but have encountered frustration in their pursuit of Southampton’s Mateus Fernandes. Southampton have an excellent chance of keeping Fernandes after raising funds through the sale of Tyler Dibling to Everton.
West Ham may be forced to move to other targets, including Feyenoord’s Quinten Timber, twin brother of Arsenal’s Jurriën. They are monitoring Ajax’s Kenneth Taylor, Middlesbrough’s Hayden Hackney, Rennes’ Djaoui Cissé, Torino’s Ivan Ilic and Werder Bremen’s Romano Schmid.
Potter does not have a huge budget and the move for Magassa depended on Edson Álvarez or Guido Rodríguez leaving. West Ham could not find a buyer for Álvarez but got the Mexico midfielder’s wages off the books after loaning him to Fenerbahce. Rodríguez has interest from Spain and is surplus to requirements. West Ham have turned down a bid from Everton for Tomas Soucek but the Czech Republic midfielder could still be allowed to leave.
West Ham are also exploring whether to revive their move for the Botafogo goalkeeper John Victor. They almost signed the Brazilian last month but opted for Mads Hermansen instead.
Potter faces a battle to lift the mood in the dressing room. Lucas Paquetá has interest from several clubs but West Ham are unlikely to sell the Brazil midfielder on the cheap.
Crystal Palace have approached Manchester City about signing Manuel Akanji as doubts continue over the captain Marc Guéhi’s future and have stepped up talks with Villarreal over the potential Eberechi Eze replacement Yeremy Pino.
Akanji has fallen out of favour under Pep Guardiola and is yet to feature for City this season. The defender, who moved to the Premier League in 2022 and has two years on his contract, is thought to be available for about £15m and also has interest from Galatasaray.
Palace view the 30-year-old as an experienced replacement for Guéhi. Liverpool have yet to meet Palace’s £40m valuation of the England international, who has entered the final 12 months of his contract and is said to be relaxed about the situation.
The Palace chair, Steve Parish, admitted this month that the 25-year-old would have to be sold in this window unless he signed a new deal, although Guéhi is understood to be prepared to run down his contract and leave on a free. Barcelona and Juventus are thought to have registered an interest should that transpire.
Pino, a Spain international, has a release clause of £67m but it is understood Villarreal have indicated they want up to €55m (£47.5m), including add-ons. Palace have yet to match the valuation but had an initial offer of £25m rejected last week and talks are ongoing. They are believed to have identified Pino, who has 15 caps and is capable of operating as a winger or No 10, as a solution to replace Eze’s creativity in Glasner’s favoured 3-4-2-1.
Palace have also held talks with Leicester over a deal for Bilal El Khannouss, although the Morocco forward has also been linked with Tottenham after being left out of the Championship side’s game at the weekend. Glasner is thought to prefer Christos Tzolis but Club Brugge are reluctant to sell the Greek forward.
