West Ham are holding talks with Chelsea about the possibility of signing Kurt Zouma, according to reports in the UK.
The Hammers are said to be willing to pay £20m for the 26-year-old, which is below the Blues’ valuation of the defender, and fans on Twitter feel director Marina Granovskaia should not let the player leave unless the club can get a decent fee:
Lol, Zouma is worth more than Guehi’s price ffs. 30m minimum especially for an EPL club
— Sudip Majumder ✍️ (@studipm) July 29, 2021
they are mad. if Rice is 100 mil Zouma is 80 mil
— Mish (@akwesimishael) July 29, 2021
For 20 they will get Drinkwater..
— Siddanth (@ASiddanth) July 29, 2021
Declan Rice and £30m ?
— BluesDan (@wlmftn) July 29, 2021
This is just marina stiring the pot to get the kounde deal over the line ?
— Paul Dawson (@didz2107) July 29, 2021
This is simple. If Chelsea sell to west ham for around £25m to 30m they just add that to the £25m they offered to kounde. Gets close to his £68m clause.
If Sevilla doesn’t want zouma they sell and add the money. One needs to go to one— AaronSports? (@Aaron_sports1) July 29, 2021
Easy fix – Zouma and Tammy in exchange for rice
— Tec10 (@Tecio13) July 29, 2021
??? West Scam
— Pablo CFC (@PabloCFC3) July 29, 2021
Right now it’s just getting silly. Kounde was on yesterday with Zouma involved, today it’s off and now Zouma could be going to West Ham. I’m so done with this window it’s getting painful
— Ross Presslee (@RossPresslee) July 29, 2021
There has been speculation that Zouma could be used in Chelsea’s attempts to sign Sevilla’s Jules Kounde so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Swap deals can be tricky to pull off simply because they require the agreement of both players, and there are doubts over whether Zouma would be interested in a switch to Spain.
The La Liga club are in the Champions League, which should make them an attractive destination, but there are suggestions that the centre-half may prefer staying in London, where he is settled, which would hand the advantage to West Ham.