Loaned to IFK Norrköping in Sweden from January 2019 until June 2020, Sead Hakšabanović has managed to get himself back on track in his career.
After a less than fruitful spell at Málaga in Spain, the Sweden born Montenegro international decided to return home to get some game time, and it’s worked out rather well.
Scoring nine goals and assisting another eight in 36 appearances for the Allsvenskan side, the winger has now given West Ham something to think about regarding whether or not they keep him forward.
The player has reportedly already made it known he doesn’t want to be loaned out again, meaning the Hammers have two choices: bring him back to London Stadium and use him or simply sell him.
Norrköping would ideally like to keep him around since he’s been a success for them, but the club’s chairman, Peter Hunt, feels there’s a big hill to overcome before that can happen.
Speaking to NT in Sweden and relayed by Fotbolldirekt, he explained the situation: “If I have to make an assessment, our chances of signing him are not so great. It feels like there is a risk that it’s too much money”.
FotbollDirekt have information of their own, explaining Norrköping, as things stand, have had ‘no contact’ with West Ham, who are supposedly asking for ‘at least €1m’ to sell him.
Peter Hunt continued: “I think everyone understand that it’s a Premier League club you’re dealing with. It’s not IFK Norrköping that controls these talks. We have a dialogue and we try to be updated as much as possible, but we definitely don’t control what bids and prices are available”.
As for the dialogue with West Ham he mentioned, he added: “I don’t want to go into those questions, but we’ve had a close dialogue for a year and a half and various types of solutions have been discussed. Today we also don’t know the impact this pandemic will have on the football economy in general.
“It’s likely that player prices won’t go up, but on the other hand, there is always interest in top players and Sead isn’t a mediocre Allsvenskan player”.
Either way, it appears that unless West Ham facilitate a move by lowering their asking price or coming up with some kind of deal that suits Norrköping, Hakšabanović appears to be on his way back to London Stadium, even if his stay there could be very brief.
