West Ham: £20million Celtic sensation bid; English defender wanted; Zaza stay over

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The Daily Record claim that West Ham have made a £20 million bid for Celtic’s star striker Moussa Dembele in an attempt to add goals to their squad. The 20-year-old has scored 19 goals in 36 games since joining the Hoops, who are believed to be hugely reluctant to sell and would at the very least hold out for a much higher price.

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The Frenchman was previously at Fulham and is very highly rated after scoring five Champions League goals this season, but it currently seems unlikely that he would make a mid-season move to the Premier League or West Ham.

After reports linking the club to former player Jermain Defoe, there are now new rumours suggesting that the Hammers could make a move for ex-right back Glen Johnson, according to Sky Sports. The ex-Liverpool and Chelsea man is now at Stoke City where he has figured both on the right and centrally in a three man defence.

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Slaven Bilic is reportedly keen to add his experience and quality and believe that they may be able to tempt the former England international to return to London either in January or at the end of the campaign.

Meanwhile, manager Slaven Bilic has confirmed that Simone Zaza’s stay at the club is effectively over due to clauses in his loan deal which would see him signed permanently should he make a certain number of appearances. The Croatian said:

“He is still our player until he goes somewhere but mainly because of the situation with his contract he is finished here. Unfortunately we had to judge him on six, seven, eight games which is not a big pattern to judge a player in general. He is definitely a good player but like many times in football, it just didn’t happen.”

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The Italian failed to score in any of his 11 appearances of what was undoubtedly a failed spell in London for Zaza.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Craig Ballantyne.