DoF admits contact with West Ham’s Husillos this summer – Told him player was ‘on their list’

Over the summer, West Ham were linked with Morgan Sanson, who was one of the more sellable assets at Marseille.

In fact, the transfer was made to sound far more concrete than it actually was, since the midfielder never really came close to leaving the south of France and Manuel Pellegrini found his joy elsewhere when it came to strengthening his squad.

Any contact with Marseille would have had to go through their director of football, Andoni Zubizarreta, who opened up about a moment over the past transfer window that involved West Ham during an interview with Le Phocéen, relayed by Peuple Olympien.

He said: “This summer, someone called me to tell me that West Ham were interested in one of our players. I know their sporting director, Mario Husillos, really well, so I call him straight away and he tells me no, they aren’t interested, that he’s on their list but he isn’t a part of the top three.”

No player is named, but if you look at the list of Marseille players the Hammers were linked with and the amount of press surrounding that possible move at the time, it isn’t hard to deduce who he could be talking about.

Either way, West Ham have done just fine without Sanson, while the Ligue 1 side are trying to find some consistent form under André Villas-Boas as they currently sit fourth after 10 games, eight points behind Paris Saint-Germain.