Everton have moved to hijack yet another West Ham target as Frank Lampard rivals David Moyes for Ligue 1 ace Bamba Dieng.
That’s according to a new report from France today.
Lampard and Everton appear to have caught on to the idea of piggybacking West Ham’s recruitment targets just like Eddie Howe and Newcastle have been doing.
As West Ham fans know only too well, Everton came in at the 11th hour to beat the Hammers to the £33m signing of Amadou Onana.
The giant Belgian looked all set to sign for West Ham who had a bid accepted at the fourth time of asking.
But Lampard came in, offered Onana a greater guarantee of a starting spot and Moyes pulled the plug.
West Ham then moved to solve a defensive crisis by signing Conor Coady from Wolves.
But Everton swooped in again and brought the Liverpool fan back to Merseyside.
Now Everton have made a move to hijack yet another West Ham target as Lampard rivals Moyes for Ligue 1 ace Dieng.
West Ham have been linked with the versatile Marseille attacker for some time.
As Hammers fans know, Ligue 1 is very much an area Moyes and Rob Newman are looking to for players.
Last week 90min claimed West Ham were among the clubs interested in signing Dieng.
That tallies with comments from Moyes in this week’s press conference that he wants to bring more goals to the team.
Fabrizio Romano also reported last week that two Premier League clubs were keen to sign the 22-year-old, who is believed to have a £12m asking price.
It seems those two clubs are West Ham and the Toffees.
And now Everton are trying to beat the Hammers to the Senegal international, who scored nine goals and laid on one assist in just 11 starts for Marseille last season.
According to Ignazio Genuardi and Get French Football News, Everton are targeting Dieng, alongside discussions with Strasbourg for another alleged West Ham target Ludovic Ajorque and Rennes’ Serhou Guirassy.
It seems to be very much in vogue for the clubs trying to rival West Ham as top six challengers to copy the recruitment of Newman and Moyes.
It is a backhanded compliment for the Hammers of course.
But if Dieng is a Moyes target let’s hope West Ham fend off Everton as they did Newcastle when they tried to sign Nayef Aguerd, Alphonse Areola and Maxwel Cornet.