West Ham open talks for former Gunner with sell-on clause

Fabrizio Romano reports that West Ham have turned to Konstantinos Mavropanos, with talks on and the player keen on a return to the Premier League.

The news had originally been broken by ExWHUEmployee on Tuesday night, with the West Ham insider confirming that the club are in talks with Stuttgart over the potential transfer.

Bild reported earlier in the summer that a transfer for the former Arsenal centre-back was very possible this window, but it could take a while to go through.

The likes of Napoli and Wolves had also been linked with a move, but the West Ham transfer seems the most realistic.

After all, we know the Hammers were willing to offer £30m for Harry Maguire, so they have the funds and the desire to get a deal done for a defender.

Mavropanos has a sell-on clause in his Stuttgart contract, so if he makes a summer move, Arsenal would take home some of the proceeds.

The centre-back has been linked with a transfer away from Stuttgart since before he even officially joined them.

Reports last spring suggested he was going to make his loan move permanent and then immediately leave, which didn’t happen.

But after another year battling relegation with Stuttgart, you’d imagine the 25-year-old might feel the time is now right to move on.

Stuttgart only avoided relegation with a win in their relegation play-off against Hamburg, having finished 16th in the Bundesliga regular season.