A West Ham board ITK has responded to claims of a major David Moyes U-turn on a deal for playmaker Nikola Vlasic.
Moyes shipped Vlasic out on a season-long loan to Italian side Torino in the summer after he failed to establish himself at West Ham after signing for £26m a year before.
With West Ham struggling for goals all season many have pointed to the fact Vlasic is officially one of the best playmakers in Europe’s top five leagues this season as evidence the Scot made the wrong decision.
Torino have an option to buy Vlasic for around £11.2m and reports suggested they will be taking that up given how impressive the Croatian has been.
So there was some surprise this week when a report emerged claiming Vlasic could make a shock early return to West Ham from his loan spell with Torino.
According to Libero (print edition January 25th, page 30), Hammers boss Moyes has liked what he has seen and changed his mind on Vlasic, wanting the 25-year-old attacking midfielder back at the London Stadium.
Now a West Ham board ITK has responded to claims of the major Moyes U-turn on a deal for playmaker Vlasic.
Sean Whetstone insists the reports are incorrect.
Because not only do West Ham not have a recall option in Vlasic’s loan deal, he simply is not in Moyes’ future plans.
“West Ham have no option to recall Nikola Vlasic from loan in January and regardless he isn’t in David Moyes future plans,” Whetstone said on Twitter.
“Torino have €13m (£11.2m) to buy and they pay 85% of his £70k per week wages at present.
“Hammers are withholding a £7.8m payment to Russian club due to sanctions.”
Earlier this season Vlasic said he is performing so well in Italy because he feels ‘free and trusted again’.
Many West Ham fans feel Vlasic was not given a fair crack of the whip in his favoured central number 10 position by Moyes during his debut season.
At Torino Vlasic has created the fourth-most chances in open play of anyone in Europe’s top five leagues this season (34). He is level with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and ahead of Kevin De Bruyne (33), Harry Kane (32) and Kylian Mbappé (27).