Uruguay have been knocked out of the Copa America by Peru, which means Maxi Gomez is free to do as he pleases until he’s set to return to training with Celta Vigo.
Theoretically, that gives West Ham a chance to get in there and seriously push a transfer for the striker.
Interest from the Hammers has been pushed since the winter market, but despite Sky Sports recently claiming they’d had an offer accepted, Celta’s president subsequently made it clear that wasn’t the case.
Any move is going to be hard, with it being repeatedly reported in Spain Gomez is insisting on having a big say in his next destination. He wants to fight for trophies and play in the Champions League, and that’s put West Ham at a disadvantage.
The perfect destination for him was Valencia and around a month ago it was considered only a matter of time before the transfer happened. However, talks then collapsed between Celta and Los Che, giving West Ham and others some hope.
Faro de Vigo now report there’s been big developments. Talks are back on and going relatively well.
Valencia have agreed to include two youth players, Santi Mina and a transfer fee of around €15m for Gomez.
One of the youth players is Spain U21 defender Jorge Sáenz de Miera. It’s thought he’d move to Celta with Valencia keeping 50% of his transfer rights and having a clause to repurchase the other half.
The other youngster could be Kangin Lee, who Faro de Vigo say was ‘one of the revelations of the last U20 World Cup’.
There are other options, even players from the first team squad, and it’s made clear Celta are now open to such a deal.
None of this sounds very good for West Ham.
