West Ham may have to see off Liverpool and Newcastle, as well as Arsenal, if they are to sign Lille midfielder Amadou Onana this summer, according to ExWHUemployee.

It has been widely reported that the Hammers have had an opening offer rejected for the 20-year-old but, writing on his Patreon, Ex suggests there is also a lot of competition for the player:

“We can confirm that a bid was submitted but was also rejected. There is a lot of interest in the player including from mainly Arsenal but Liverpool, Monaco and another couple of premier league teams. No doubt Newcastle will emerge as one, they will challenge most of our targets as we predictably reported early on in this window.”

“It is thought West Ham are considering whether to make a bid again but there are concerns that Lille want to start a bidding war between West Ham and Arsenal.”

Lille’s current stance is that Onana isn’t for sale. However, that is likely to be a negotiating position based on the fact that they know there are plenty of Premier League teams pursuing the Belgian.

The Ligue One side are notoriously tough negotiators, having held out to sell Nicolas Pepe for £72m a few years ago, and they won’t make things easy for West Ham.

After getting an agreement with Rennes for Nayef Aguerd last month, though, there will be confidence that the Irons can be equally successful in talks over signing Onana.