West Ham Now Trailing Southampton In Battle For £11m Rated Forward

West Ham Now Trailing Southampton In Battle For £11m Rated Forward

Southampton and Nice are now the favourites to sign Lorient forward Alexis Claude-Maurice, according to Calciomercato.it.

The Italian website reports that West Ham previously made a €12m (£11m) bid for the 21-year-old back in June, including a 25% sell-on clause.

However, the Hammers’ offer was not accepted and it seems the Saints are now leading the race for Claude-Maurice, along with Nice and Serie A side Torino.

The Frenchman scored 14 goals for Lorient in Ligue Two last season, but he generally plays from the left-hand side, rather than through the middle.



With West Ham well-stocked in that area, with Felipe Anderson, Pablo Fornals and others all able to play there, it’s likely that the London club have cooled their interest.

With just two out-and-out strikers in the squad, though, the Irons are expected to make a move for another centre-forward before the transfer window slams shut at the end of next week.

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.