West Ham’s offer for Armando Broja was never formally rejected by Chelsea, according to talkSPORT journalist Alex Crook.

The Hammers reportedly tabled a bid in the region of £30m for the Albanian international last month, but Crook claims that Chelsea failed to respond to the proposal:

“I don’t think the bid was ever formally rejected, Chelsea just ignored it, but I still think West Ham would love to sign him if he became available, although at the moment I don’t think that’s likely.”

The decision not to reply to West Ham was likely political. Broja was believed to be keen on leaving Stamford Bridge on a permanent basis in order to get more first-team football, but Blues boss Thomas Tuchel didn’t want him to go.

Rather than rejecting the bid and making it clear that they were not willing to sell the striker, Chelsea have opted to focus on persuading the player to stay, without closing off the possibility of a potential transfer.

Irons boss David Moyes seemingly lost patience with the situation very quickly, as the club went on to finalise a move for Gianluca Scamacca instead.