West Ham are on the verge of sealing a deal for Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus.
After seeing two bids rejected for the Ghanaian, the Hammers are confident of a £38million bid forcing a breakthrough in talks with a five-year contract on the table.
Kudus is set to accept West Ham’s terms, which feature an option for another year, with £2.5m of his fee made up of add-ons.
The 23-year-old would be a major coup for David Moyes’s side after interest in Kudus from Chelsea and Brighton earlier in the transfer window.
Brighton managed to agree a fee with Ajax but the deal collapsed earlier in August. Chelsea, meanwhile, discussed a move with Kudus’s entourage but stopped short of making an official offer.
Kudus hit top form with 18 goals and seven assists last season after arriving in Amsterdam from Denmark’s Nordsjælland in 2020. While talks over his future continued, he has remained part of the side for Ajax’s two Eredivisie matches to start the season, scoring in one game and bagging an assist in the other.
The Ghana international was also one of his country’s stars at the World Cup in Qatar but, with just two years left on his current deal, the Dutch giants have been forced to accept his exit.
West Ham are also weighing up further reinforcements to their forward line with Sevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri now their primary target.
Moyes is keen to sign another forward after Gianluca Scamacca left for Atalanta earlier this month, with Paris Saint-Germain youngster Hugo Ekitike also of interest.
En-Nesyri, 27, has long been a target for Moyes after he failed with an approach in January 2021 and he will likely prove a costly option having scored 18 goals last season as well as starring at the World Cup with Morocco.
Ekitike, 21, is a more straightforward option with PSG open to either a loan or sale for their young forward but West Ham would have to beat competition from Everton, AC Milan, Lyon and Eintracht Frankfurt.
The French champions would prefer a sale over a loan having already received a bid worth £29.8m plus a further £4.3m in add-ons from Everton.
West Ham signed Stuttgart defender Konstantinos Mavropanos yesterday for £19m to add to the more than £60m spent on midfielders James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez.
The UEFA Conference League winners are expected to continue spending big until deadline day on September 1 after banking a club-record £105m from Declan Rice's move to Arsenal in July, along with a further £30m in other player sales. Chelsea duo Ian Maatsen and Conor Gallagher are braced for further interest from the Hammers, as is Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay.
