On Thursday, Portuguese newspaper A Bola has a big feature claiming Premier League sides Bournemouth and West Ham are keen on signing Paolo Hurtado from Reading.
They are covering the story because Hurtado is currently on loan at Vitória Guimarães, not in Jaap Stam’s Reading squad, and with the interest from West Ham and Bournemouth, it would be harder for the Liga NOS side to keep him permanently.
But despite the long article, it’s claimed the source of the news was originally in England, but there’s nothing in the English media.
What we did find was a report from Peruvian outlet El Bocón covering the same information on Tuesday, and also saying that the reports are coming from England.
El Bocón are a big local outlet, obviously interested. But the rumours is curious given nobody really wants to take responsibility for it.
It could well be that the idea of West Ham and Bournemouth interest has been pushed to the Peruvian media.
Signed from Paços Ferreira in August 2015, Hurtado failed to impress at Reading. The club didn’t have much patience with him and sent him on loan to Vitória Guimarães six months later.
Although the first spell at Vitória wasn’t great either, the clubs decided to renew the deal, and since then, the player finally found some good form. He has nine goals and three assists this season, and has been decisive in the past few games.
