Lorient are looking to sell Alexis Claude-Maurice, but they want to do it on their terms rather than the player’s.
That means bringing in as much money as possible and then trying to persuade the 21 year old to join the lucky club.
As is often the case, this means the Ligue 2 club looking towards the Premier League, with West Ham the club most linked.
The attacker would much prefer a move to the Bundesliga at this stage of his career, and Wednesday’s L’Equipe quotes him as saying: “I want to join Monchengladbach, it is a club that relies on young people, there is a good structure, the team will play in the Europa League. This project pleases me and suits me.”
Borussia Monchengladbach have offered €8m, which Lorient find ‘insufficient’, and they’ve claimed they have offers of €15m.
Claude-Maurice feels his club are trying to ‘force his hand, and L’Equipe then add: ‘Especially since the offer of West Ham, who have never spoken with the player, has reached Lorient via the McKay family, and the situation around the transfer, after the sad case of Emiliano Sala, does not enchant Claude-Maurice.’
There’s every chance West Ham don’t know an awful lot about this, and are being used to try and drive the player’s price higher. It wouldn’t be the first time.
