A journalist says West Ham are taking on Premier League rivals Liverpool in a bid to sign a star playing at the Euros today.
Both West Ham and Liverpool are undergoing rebuilds this summer after the departures of David Moyes and Jurgen Klopp.
West Ham and Liverpool were both heavily linked with Ruben Amorim and Arne Slot.
The latter was eventually appointed as the new Reds boss while West Ham went for Spaniard Julen Lopetegui.
A key area of focus for Slot and Lopetegui’s respective rebuilds is the defence.
West Ham shipped a club record 74 Premier League goals last season. And Lopetegui wants to see captain Kurt Zouma and fellow centre-back Nayef Aguerd sold.
Meanwhile Slot is said to be searching for a new partner for Virgil van Dijk at Liverpool.
Lopetegui and Slot focus on central defence
It seems that has set the Hammers and Liverpool on a collision course over a mutual transfer target.
Because a journalist says West Ham are taking on Liverpool to sign a star playing at the Euros today.
The Hammers and Liverpool are doing battle to sign Italy centre-back Riccardo Calafiori.
That’s according to Italian football expert and journalist James Horncastle in The Athletic.
Horncastle claims hybrid centre-back Calafiori is attracting a lot of interest from the Premier League and Juventus.
And he backed up a superb season helping unfancied Bologna into the Champions League with a standout performance for Italy in their win over Albania at the weekend.
Horncastle claims West Ham and Liverpool have both approached Bologna about signing the 22-year-old.
West Ham taking on Liverpool to sign Calafiori
Newcastle and Brighton are also credited with an interest.
It is not known how much Bologna would be asking for if they were to reluctantly sell Calafiori, who will start for Italy against Spain at Euro 2024 today.
But it is stated that his former club Basel have a huge sell-on clause of between 40-50 per cent.
And unfortunately for Liverpool’s recruitment chief Richard Hughes and West Ham technical director Tim Steidten, Juve appear favourites after appointing Bologna’s manager Thiago Motta as their new boss.
“If Bologna can’t keep him, they must hope his value rises exponentially over the next month,” Horncastle states.
“Juventus remain in pole position for his signing. They wish to reunite him with Thiago Motta.”
Negotiations to sign Calafiori may prove difficult over the next few weeks if Italy go deep into the Euros.
Reds and Hammers linked with many more
But Calafiori is just one of a plethora of centre-backs the Hammers and Reds have been linked with.
In the last few weeks West Ham have failed in moves for Brazilians Fabricio Bruno and Vitao.
It has also been reported that Lopetegui wants Max Kilman as his prime target and that West Ham have ‘opened talks’ for the Wolves captain.
Reports in France claim West Ham want to sign towering 6ft 5in ace Etiene Kinkoue from Le Havre.
Three other centre-backs on Liverpool’s alleged transfer wishlist have also been linked with West Ham in the not-too-distant past.
Bayer Leverkusen duo Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie are both targets for Slot according to TeamTALK.
So too is Leny Yoro at Lille.
You can check out what Calafiori would bring to the West Ham or Liverpool sides in the video below.