West Ham United have made a second offer of £20million for Barcelona midfielder Andre Gomes, according to Claret & Hugh.
The reliable Hammers news source claims that Manuel Pellegrini’s side have upped their bid for the Euro 2016 winner, after The Times reported earlier this month that they had made an £18million opening gambit for the 25-year-old.
The club are thought to be willing to spend up to £25million on the Portugal international, who spent the season on loan at Premier League rivals Everton.
Pellegrini is keen on bringing Gomes to the London Stadium and wants to pair him with starlet Declan Rice in the centre of the Hammers’ midfield.
OPINION
West Ham were always going to go back in with a second bid for the Barca star, as they must have known that their original £18million offer was going to be knocked back. They were just testing the waters there and are doing so again here it seems. With Everton also in the hunt they have to be careful not to immediately offer the full £25million only to see the Toffees increase their own bid past that amount. That would leave the Hammers out in the cold, which is the last thing anyone wants with a player of Gomes’s calibre. The idea of pairing him with Rice is obviously incredibly exciting. The Englishman enjoyed a phenomenal breakthrough campaign this term and is only going to get better moving forward. However, his improvement would be accelerated hugely by playing alongside someone like Gomes. For all those reasons and more, the West Ham faithful will be massively keen for their club to bring the Portuguese star to east London.
