Report makes new claim over £43.5m West Ham striker target Maxi Gomez but insider disagrees

Add as preferred source on Google

West Ham United remain intent on confirming the signing Maxi Gomez before the transfer window closes on Thursday.

That is according to a new report from The Guardian.

The newspaper claimed on Sunday that West Ham are closing in on the signing of the 22-year-old Uruguyan star and are ready to pay his £43.5m release clause.

‘They are confident’

“They are confident a deal for the 22-year-old Uruguayan can be struck before the transfer window shuts on Thursday after telling Marko Arnautovic that they will let him move to China for £45m in the summer,” Jacob Steinberg wrote in The Guardian.

“With Celta battling against relegation from La Liga, West Ham’s willingness to let Gómez return to Spain on loan for the rest of the season is likely to bring a successful end to negotiations.”

It comes after Hammers star Marko Arnautovic performed a dramatic U-turn on Friday night, committing himself to West Ham after weeks of speculation.

West Ham looked likely to lose Arnautovic after his agent and brother Danijel told talkSPORT he wanted to leave.

Report will excite fans as deadline day looms large

The Austrian was the subject of two lucrative offers from Chinese Super League clubs Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai SIPG.

The new report over the potential signing of Gomez will excite West Ham fans.

But they should not get carried away according to reliable Hammers insider ExWHUemployee.

The popular Twitter source told his near 55,000 following that it is ‘unlikely’ the club will sign Gomez this month.

Hammers insider urges caution

“At this point I would be very surprised if Gomez joins us this window (I know this isn’t what people want to hear so I’ve avoided saying),” ExWHUemployee said on Twitter on Monday night.

“Things change very fast in football and I’ll update if I hear differently. Sorry.

“I don’t think it will happen, I could be wrong and things change very quickly but I would be surprised now that Arnie is staying until the summer but if it changes I’ll update… there are a number of hurdles: mainly Arnie staying until summer. I believe talks have been going on but I was told they are not confident of concluding it. Hope that changes which it obviously could.”