West Ham player believed to be available for €5-7m – Manager values him highly, loan idea being evaluated

West Ham United midfielder Pablo Fornals is still being evaluated by Real Betis, with manager Manuel Pellegrini rating him highly.

That’s according to AS, who say Betis are ‘considering’ a move if there is space in their salary cap for them to do so.

The newspaper explains that the planned departure of Andres Guardado, which will take place next week, will leave Pellegrini without another player and his squad further depleted for the second half of the season.

Indeed, he may not be the last to leave, so the club are evaluating players to bring in to cover that, and Fornals is one of them.

He may leave West Ham because he wants more minutes and Pellegrini knows the player well having worked with him at the London Stadium. Indeed, he is ‘one of those who most values’ the footballer.

Because of that he’s been in Betis’ plans for some time and they’re continuing to evaluate a move as they believe he could be available for €5-7m, a ‘not too high amount’.

The Spanish side, though, would prefer to do a deal that would see Fornals move on loan until the end of the season with a mandatory purchase option included.

To do that they would need to free up more space in the wage cap after Andres Guardado’s departure, but with several of their players being looked at, that’s possible.

Either way it’s a deal that’s being looked at and could come to fruition at the end of the window, when Betis have the space to move for the West Ham man.