West Ham will meet Lazio officials in Rome next week as part of their attempt to sign Felipe Anderson.
Manuel Pellegrini is an admirer of Anderson, who is understood to be keen on a move to London, and West Ham have identified the Brazilian winger as a key target this summer. The London club are hopeful an agreement will be reached during face-to-face talks with their Serie A counterparts and are prepared to back their manager by making an offer of €35m (£30.8m) plus add-ons for the 25-year-old.
Pellegrini wants to add more speed and craft to West Ham’s attack and has explored the possibility of signing Javier Pastore from Paris Saint-Germain. But Pastore’s wage demands remain too high – the Argentinian earns €180,000 a week at the French champions – which has led to West Ham increasing their interest in Anderson, who joined Lazio from Santos in 2013.
Anderson’s agents held talks with Lazio on Thursday and it seems inevitable he will be allowed to leave for the right price. While he has been linked with Chelsea and Monaco, West Ham’s speed off the mark means they are favourites to sign him.
Pellegrini is pushing for West Ham to invest heavily in their squad. They have already signed Ryan Fredericks on a free transfer from Fulham and they have targeted Barcelona’s Marlon Santos and Genoa’s Armando Izzo in an attempt to strengthen their leaky defence.
However, West Ham, who continue to insist that Marko Arnautovic will not be sold to Manchester United, face a fight to hold on to Declan Rice after the 19-year-old rejected their offer of a new contract.
It is understood the defender turned down an offer of £15,000 per week and is holding out for better terms. West Ham are wary of harming the youngster’s progress by giving him too much at such a young age, however, and are reluctant to meet his demands of £30,000 a week.
