A Premier League club has called a meeting between chairman and player to discuss a bid an insider claims is from West Ham.
After losing Angelo Ogbonna for the season to an ACL injury and Kurt Zouma until at least February – as first reported by Hammers News – David Moyes is looking to sign a centre-back in January.
West Ham have been linked with the likes of Man City’s Nathan Ake, Bournemouth’s Lloyd Kelly, Liverpool’s Nat Phillips, a host of Ligue 1 players and Burnley’s James Tarkowski, who is out of contract in the summer.
On the pitch, the Hammers came out of their recent slump with back-to-back wins. But Moyes’s side still looked vulnerable defensively with the manager and players such as Mark Noble and Declan Rice admitting that West Ham simply must improve defensively to stay in the top four race.
In an ideal world Moyes prefers his central defenders to be experienced.
So Tarkowski, 29, would fit the bill. The former Brentford man is out of contract at Burnley in the summer and has long since made it clear he will not be signing a new deal.
Moyes is a huge admirer of the former England defender and launched a £34m bid for him last summer.
That was rejected as Burnley wanted nearer £50m.
Well now the Clarets have called a meeting between chairman Alan Pace and Tarkowski to discuss an £8.25m bid that has been submitted from a club that insiders Claret and Hugh claim is likely West Ham.
Premier League club calls meeting to discuss bid insider claims is from West Ham
“Moysie has been tracking the 29-year-old Mancunian for a number of weeks but we have received mixed messages from his club over a sale during this window,” insiders Claret and Hugh claim in a new exclusive.
“Tarkowski’s deal is up this summer but Burnley are deep in relegation trouble and unsure whether to cash in. However, we have been told that Clarets chairman Alan Pace will meet with the player in the coming days to lay cards on the table.
“It’s understood Burnley has an offer on the table of £8.25m from an unnamed Premier League club and know falling through the relegation trapdoor in May will cost them much more than that. Pace, though, is extremely sympathetic to Tarkowski’s situation, knowing Irons have their sights trained on him as a potential replacement for Ogbonna, out for the rest of this season with a cruciate knee ligament injury.
“Burnley’s owners are not planning to splash the cash this month and boss Sean Dyche will accept whatever decision is now made on Tarkowski during the next week.
“My source told me: “Burnley know James will remain loyal to the club if he is told he must stay until the summer, but there has been an injection of pragmatism since Christmas.“
“The best part of £10m is a lot of money to a club like Burnley and they know it won’t be coming around again for the player. The manager has plenty of faith in the squad but he knows it is a difficult situation for everyone on both sides of the Tarkowski discussions.”
If the bid is indeed from West Ham and Moyes can pull this off it will seriously boost the Hammers’s hopes of success this season.
The team has looked poor defensively with Issa Diop in central defence. And Tarkowski is a focused, no-nonsense, powerful, quality centre-back as well as a real leader.