Having lost Pablo Zabaleta to the end of his contract, West Ham desperately needed some right-back depth at the club.
Ben Johnson was promoted to the first-team, but even with the inexperienced rookie and Ryan Fredericks in the role, it felt like a weak spot in David Moyes’ squad.
In the end, Vladimir Coufal was brought in from Slavia Prague for £5.4m, the same club West Ham got Tomas Soucek from, but he wasn’t the only one they looked at.
It appears one of their targets was Lille’s Zeki Celik, as reported by L’Equipe.
The French newspaper state the French club received offers from both West Ham and AS Roma for their right-back, but ‘they never went above €12m’.
They also had bids of loans with a view to buy that weren’t accepted, and Lille found themselves worried about having to find a replacement at short notice.
In the end, Celik stayed put, but it’s clear there will be more interest down the line, although we doubt it’ll be coming from the London Stadium
