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West Ham face fresh competition to land £40m deal in fee and wages - reports
By Tom Blackburn
Inter Milan have turned their attentions to AC Milan striker and long-term West Ham target Carlos Bacca, according to a report.
The Mirror claimed at the end of July that West Ham have increased their bid for Bacca to £27million and offered him a four-year contract worth£70,000-a-week to make him the club’s third top earner behind Dimitri Payet and Andy Carroll.
According to Premium Sport, via Football Italia, Inter will hope to bring in Bacca from their rivals if Mauro Icardi leaves the club.
It is said that Napoli are closely pursuing Icardi, who has also been linked with a move to Arsenal.
Slaven Bilic had revealed on Thursday that West Ham’s opening game at the Olympic Stadium could be the key to landing Carlos Bacca and it could be that the Colombia international has now agreed to join the Hammers after progress to the next stage of the Europa League was confirmed.
Bacca joined Milan from Sevilla 12 months ago for a fee of around £22million after his release clause was activated and is contracted to the Italian giants until 2019.
The 33-time capped international starred for the Italian giants last season where he scored 20 goals in 43 appearances in all competitions.
Should West Ham agree terms, Bacca will become Slaven Bilic’s seventh signing of the summer following the arrivals of Gokhan Tore, Sofiane Feghouli, Toni Martinez, Havard Nordtveit, Ashley Fletcher and Domingos Quina.
The Colombia international would also become the most expensive purchase in the east London club’s history, exceeding the £15million spent on the signing of Andy Carroll from Liverpool in 2013.
In other West Ham transfer news, Twitter has reacted to speculation that the Hammers will smash their transfer record this weekend.