Ipswich have agreed a club record deal to sign the Chelsea forward Omari Hutchinson for a fee that could rise to £22m, with the former loanee expected to complete his move over the weekend.
It is another coup for promoted Ipswich, who have secured one of the driving forces behind last season’s remarkable ascent from the Championship. Hutchinson, who turns 21 in October, scored 10 league goals and established himself in Kieran McKenna’s starting lineup during the second half of the season. He became perhaps the best wide forward in the division and was named Ipswich’s young player of the year.
The initial fee paid to Chelsea is understood to be £20m. Arsenal, who let Hutchinson move to Stamford Bridge two years ago after he had spent seven years at their academy, will receive a percentage of the sum. The deal significantly eclipses Ipswich’s previous record outlay of around £5m for the goalkeeper Matteo Sereni in 2001.
Tying down Hutchinson is the second important move of a summer that has also seen McKenna sign a new long-term contract despite serious interest from Brighton, Chelsea and Manchester United. They remain active in the transfer market before their first top-flight season for 22 years and are expected to add the West Ham defender Ben Johnson on a free transfer.
Chelsea have bid £30m for the Leicester midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and appear to be ahead of Brighton in the battle to sign the 25-year-old. Dewsbury-Hall played an important role in Leicester’s promotion under Enzo Maresca, who has since taken the Chelsea head coach’s job. Chelsea may offer players to Leicester as part of a deal. Brighton were proposing a swap deal including Jakub Moder.
Ben Godfrey has completed his move to Atalanta from Everton for a fee of around £10m. The 26-year-old had one year remaining on his Everton contract and few opportunities in his favoured central defensive role under Sean Dyche. Injuries had also restricted the former Norwich player, who moved to Goodison Park in a £25m deal in 2020, to a total of 93 appearances during his four seasons on Merseyside.
Godfrey, capped twice by England, also had an offer from Lyon but preferred a move to Serie A with Europa League winners Atalanta, who will play in the Champions League next season. “Everyone at Everton thanks Ben for his service to the club and wishes him all the best for the future,” read a club statement.
Wolves are refusing to budge on their £45m valuation of Max Kilman, forcing West Ham to start thinking about moving on to other defensive targets. Julen Lopetegui, who is also interested in the Southampton full-back Kyle Walker-Peters, has made signing a centre-back a priority and Kilman is top of his list. Wolves insist they are not under pressure to sell their captain and rejected West Ham’s opening bid of £30m plus add-ons last week.
Talks between the clubs have not progressed, despite West Ham’s confidence that they would complete the deal swiftly. They are reluctant to pay more than £35m for Kilman, who played for Lopetegui at Wolves. Sources have stressed that the deal is not completely off but at this stage West Ham are ready to look at different options.
It is thought that Wolves would accept £45m. But if they need funds to comply with the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules then it is felt they would be in line for a bigger windfall if they sold the Portugal winger Pedro Neto.
In terms of centre-backs, they are monitoring Bologna’s Riccardo Calafiori and have tracked Hull’s Jacob Greaves, who has been targeted by Ipswich and Everton.
Lopetegui also needs cover for Emerson Palmieri and Vladimir Coufal in both full-back positions and is looking at Walker-Peters, who has a year left on his deal, and the Manchester United right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka. David Moyes, Lopetegui’s predecessor, was not convinced about moving for Walker-Peters, who can play at left-back and right-back.
But West Ham, who are also searching for a striker, remain interested in Walker-Peters and there have been talks with Southampton, who want to sign Flynn Downes on a permanent deal. Meanwhile, it is understood the Hammers are unlikely to pursue their interest in the Lille striker Jonathan David.
