With the news that Monchi has now joined Aston Villa as their head of footballing operations, it’s now expected to see Unai Emery’s side moving on the transfer market quickly.
One of the players they could go after is Nicolo Zaniolo, who is widely believed to be exiting Turkey after just six months there, as Takvim explain both West Ham and the Villans are interested in his services.
The outlet have learned that no fewer than seven clubs ‘sat at the table’ with Galatasaray to discuss the Italian, among which were the Hammers and Aston Villa.
West Ham and the Birmingham side were joined by the likes of Atlético Madrid, Milan and Juventus from abroad, and a couple more Premier League clubs, who were all told the same thing: how much he will cost.
The claim from Takvim is that Galatasaray’s management have a figure in mind of €35m and they ‘do not consider accepting offers below’ that.
However, what plays in the Turkish side’s favour is that the 23-year-old isn’t overly keen to leave just yet and ‘was thinking of staying’ for one more year if needed as he could play in the Champions League with his current club.
That’s something neither West Ham nor Aston Villa can offer him at this moment in time, meaning both David Moyes and the Monchi/Emery duo will have to be very convincing in their offers if they want to bring the midfielder to England.
