Swansea City defender Alfie Mawson’s potential move to West Ham is in jeopardy due to Manuel Pellegrini and Mario Housillos both having doubts, according to Claret & Hugh.
The reliable source of Hammers information stated that Housillos, the club’s director of football, had reservations about paying £20million to sign a player from a relegated club with Pellegrini also uncomfortable at a second player arriving from the Swans due to their last campaign.
Claret & Hugh report that both senior Hammers figures wish to sign another centre-back in this window and that the club do have other unnamed targets on their radar.
It is believed that even though the Hammers have lodged a £20million bid for Mawson the club could pull out of a deal due to these doubts.
OPINION
This report suggests that Mawson shouldn’t be expecting to pull on a Hammers shirt anytime soon and this is quite a shock after previous reports. While Claret & Hugh report that the pursuit of Mawson would have ended up costing the club over £25million in transfer fees and over £60,000-a-week in wages, it seemed likely that the enforcer would be arriving at the London Stadium this summer. The Times previously reported that the Hammers were confident of a sealing a £20million deal for the enforcer but clearly that isn’t the case. Pellegrini and Housillos’ reservations about Mawson are more than justified as while he was impressive in his outings last season, he is due to cost them a lot of money to sign. The Swans are making sure to sell the 24-year-old for the most amount of money they possibly can and there are easily cheaper options for the Hammers to pursue instead. If the senior pair do have their doubts then they should quickly switch their attention in order to act fast in this window. However thankfully the pair prioritised signing Lukasz Fabianski from the Swans this season as he was a more important player to sign than Mawson.
