If Il Tempo are to be believed, then West Ham will be holding a meeting with Lazio today to try and get the Felipe Anderson deal over the line.
What once appeared to be a fairly straightforward affair has taken far longer than first anticipated, most recently due to the Serie A side trying to offload Jordan Lukaku to the Hammers as well.
Before we get into that, however, we’ll focus on the situation surrounding the Brazilian, as Il Tempo report West Ham are standing firm with their €35m + €5m offer, which technically matches the lower end of Lazio’s valuation of the player.
However, Il Messaggero give us an idea of why everything has slowed down, and it revolves around the Belgian left-back.
The price for both Felipe Anderson and Lukaku has already been defined, and stands at a little over €50m, with the bonuses taken into account.
But, and it’s a big one, the Italian newspaper explain Lazio are trying to convince West Ham to overpay for the defender, therefore paying less for Felipe Anderson.
Why? Because the Serie A side have to pay 25% of whatever they receive for the winger to Santos, and the lower they sell him for, the smaller the amount they’ll have to hand the Brazilian club.
As for Lukaku, well, they get to keep all of the money.
Il Messaggero also state there’s optimism emanating from Lazio that a deal can be done.
We’ll have to see if they go for it.
