Towards the beginning of the January transfer window, there were reports that West Ham had made an offer for Marseille’s Morgan Sanson.
After a bit of digging, Le10 Sport uncovered the Hammers as the club to have put money on the table for the midfielder, as they looked to reinforce that area of their squad midway through the campaign.
It wasn’t enough to convince the Ligue 1 club, who would have wanted above €35m before considering a sale, and Sanson eventually stayed in the south of France.
While Marseille stood in the way of the bid, the player has since made it clear he likely would have said no to a move had they accepted the offer in the first place.
Speaking to La Provence over the weekend, Sanson said: “I lived this winter market very serenely. I laughed at everything that was being said about me. I saw a lot of nonsense being written. Admittedly, there were offers, but I never thought of leaving.
As the local newspaper say, that stance will likely be tested in the summer once again, but with Marseille currently on course to qualify for the Champions League, it might need to be a fairly big club to make him change his mind.
West Ham are currently in no position to offer him that kind of football, as they find themselves in the Premier League’s relegation zone, admittedly with a game in hand on both Bournemouth and Brighton who are two and three points ahead of them in the table respectively.
Not the most attractive destination these days, David Moyes’ side will need to turn things around considerably if they are to attract players away from teams like Marseille.
Either that, or offer them a bucket load of money.
