West Ham United and Liverpool reportedly could be set to battle it out for Inter Milan star Hakan Calhanoglu.
According to Inter Live, Hakan Calhanoglu could be sold by Inter for around €50 million (£43 million), with West Ham and Liverpool preparing moves to sign the midfielder.
Hammers boss David Moyes and Liverpool chief Jurgen Klopp are both said to be admirers of the 29-year-old Inter Milan midfielder.
West Ham and Liverpool could both do with further central midfield reinforcements at the London Stadium and Anfield respectively.
He has bagged seven goals and one assist in 17 games for Inter this season (Transfermarkt), so he’s in fine form, especially considering the fact that he’s played as a DM in all of those.
Calhanoglu has averaged 2.5 tackles during those outings (Who Scored), so he’s clearly not afraid of getting stuck in.
It seems as though his time with Inter could be coming to an end though…
West Ham face Liverpool competition for Hakan Calhanoglu
Inter Live claim that the Hammers and the Reds both want to sign the Inter star, and the Serie A giants will demand around £43 million for his services.
It is worth noting that Inter will be more likely to sell him in the summer rather than the upcoming January transfer window, by which time he will be 30 – so that is an awful lot of money to be paying to bring someone of that age to the Premier League from abroad.
However, don’t let that fool you – he really is an exceptional footballer.
The 82-capped Turkey international is a defensive midfielder by trade, but he can also operate in the orthodox central midfield role as well as in the number 10 position.
He is incredibly gifted from a technical perspective, and is unbelievably press resistant when in possession – a prerequisite for anyone who wants to play in the middle of the park in the Premier League.
However, as mentioned earlier, £43 million is far too much money for us to be spending on the Turk, whether that’s in January or next summer.
Liverpool will clearly be favourites in the race to sign Hakan Calhanoglu.
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