Nottingham Forest look set to beat West Ham to Belgian midfield ace Orel Mangala but David Moyes won’t care one jot if his plan comes off.
Forest fans have been gleefully rubbing West Ham’s noses in the fact the newly-promoted side beat the Hammers to the signing of Moyes favourite Jesse Lingard last week.
Now it seems Nottingham Forest are at it again as they close in on another alleged West Ham target, Orel Mangala.
Hammers News highlighted reports in Germany over the weekend that claimed West Ham wanted Stuttgart and Belgium central midfield star Mangala.
The diminutive 24-year-old is an excellent defensive midfielder who has earned comparisons to N’Golo Kante.
Moyes is in the market for another central midfielder having seen Mark Noble retire and Alex Kral depart this summer.
West Ham-supporting Flynn Downes has come in for £12m and looks a serious prospect.
Forest supporters will undoubtedly take great pleasure in a new report from The Athletic which claims the club of Brian Clough are on the verge of yet another signing.
Nottingham Forest look set to beat West Ham to Belgian midfield ace Mangala but Moyes won’t care one jot if his plan comes off.
Because while Mangala may be a decent player, Moyes is hoping to secure one of the signings of the summer anywhere across Europe with the capture of giant midfield powerhouse Amadou Onana.
West Ham’s third bid for the 6ft 5in 20-year-old Onana has not been accepted. But it has not been rejected like the first two either. And that speaks volumes, especially amid reports Lille are struggling financially.
The Hammers are said to be privately confident of getting a deal done eventually while the player himself allegedly wants to join the east Londoners.
Lille want big money for a player regarded as one of the world’s hottest prospect central midfielders.
And it is easy to see why.
The higher-ups at the world’s second best international side believe so strongly in West Ham target Onana that they made sure to hand him his competitive debut – in central midfield at the tender age of 20 no less – in order to rubber stamp the Senegal-born star’s international allegiance.
Moyes won’t be losing any sleep if Mangala joins Forest because he is still very much fully focused on landing his plan A – Amadou Onana.
The likes of Sky Sports claim West Ham are waiting patiently for an answer from Lille in response to their third bid.
West Ham have been there, done that and got the t-shirt when it comes to the kind of incoherent scattergun recruitment approach seemingly being adopted by Forest.
It rarely – if ever – works long term and Moyes’ philosophy of waiting to get the players he wants – and has done his due diligence on – pays dividends.
Moyes and Newman seem to know exactly what they want and the players that are needed in the right areas to progress in line with the manager’s philosophy.
Whether the same can be said about Forest remains to be seen.