Borussia Dortmund have just massively driven up the price of reported West Ham defensive target Jakub Kiwior with a big bid.
West Ham have been linked with a move to sign the 22-year-old Poland centre-back for quite some time now.
Last month Tuttosport claimed that Hammers boss David Moyes is really keen to bring the Spezia star to the London Stadium.
With Craig Dawson set to leave, ageing Angelo Ogbonna likely in his final season, Thilo Kehrer error-prone and both Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma injury prone, West Ham are in need of a new centre-back.
So the longstanding links to highly-regarded Kiwior make perfect sense.
When West Ham first enquired for Kiwior the price being touted in various reports was around £13 million.
The likes of AC Milan and Napoli were also said to be rivalling West Ham’s interest in the Poland defender.
Now Borussia Dortmund have just massively upped the price of West Ham target Kiwior with a big bid.
According to Foot Mercato, Dortmund have moved to try and bring Kiwior to Germany by bidding £20m.
And even that has been rejected by Spezia according to the report.
“According to our information, the Ruhr club has made, in recent hours, an offer of €22 million (£20m) to La Spezia,” Foot Mercato reports.
“The team currently 15th in Serie A has rejected the approach, explaining that they were not interested in the idea of selling him, and that the price put on the table was insufficient, without giving a precise amount.
“The next few months promise to be lively for the young Kiwior.”
So it seems West Ham, if they remain interested, still have a chance to sign Kiwior.
But he certainly won’t come cheap if £20m is not even enough to tempt Spezia into a conversation.
Quite what it will take to change the Italian club’s mind we probably won’t know until the summer unless West Ham get desperate and start throwing some serious money around in the last two weeks of the window.
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