Club overtaking West Ham in race to sign midfielder – Talks with Hammers have once again ‘cooled down’

Monaco are overtaking West Ham United in the race for Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria as talks with the Hammers have again ‘cooled down’.

That’s according to Calciomercato, who say Juventus are continuing their work to get Zakaria out of their squad as they look to raise funds and open up space in their wage bill.

They explain that Juventus director of football Cristiano Giuntoli is continuing his work to place redundant players in Juve’s squad at new clubs and Zakaria is one of them.

He’s been working on a deal with West Ham for several weeks, but that potential option has ‘cooled down’ in the last few hours despite the Hammers still needing to replace Declan Rice this summer.

The big problem in those talks is that West Ham don’t want to pay a transfer fee and would instead have ‘insisted on the loan’. Thus, the right formula has not been found with Juventus and the deal is now cooling off.

Talks are now underway with Monaco and his agent, and they are keen on him, although whether they are willing to pay Juventus’ €20m demands isn’t clear.

West Ham certainly aren’t, and that refusal has seemingly led to the potential move being put on hold for the time being.