Player a ‘hot candidate’ for West Ham – Steidten knows him very well, transfer must be done by July 10th

West Ham United’s new sporting director Tim Steidten is eyeing a move for Bayer Leverkusen’s Jonathan Tah, who is keen to move to the Premier League.

That’s according to Kicker, who say the centre-back informed the Bundesliga side months ago that he wanted to leave after eight years.

He has an exit clause in his contract and West Ham, via their new sporting director Steidten, who was the former squad planner in Leverkusen, are keen to take advantage of it.

Tah is available for a fixed fee of €18m and it is unlikely a ‘top club’ from England would bite at that price, leaving the door open for West Ham to get their man.

The belief is that once Steidten arrives at the London Stadium on July 1^st there could quickly ‘be a first encounter’ with his former club on the transfer market and Tah would be the subject in question.

The defender is a ‘hot candidate’ for the Europa Conference League winners and there would not be any negotiation over a fee given his release clause is set.

That, though, has to be activated before Leverkusen’s summer training starts on July 10^th, something Steidten is more than aware of. If West Ham make their move after that date, then they will have to negotiate a fee.

At the moment the priority for the Hammers is sorting out Declan Rice’s future, with them still haggling over a deal with Arsenal and or Manchester City.

Once that is done, they can turn their attention to the likes of Tah, particularly given the vast sums of money that outgoing will be putting into the coffers.