West Ham Bid For Midfielder ‘Will Not Even Be Considered’ By Southampton | OneFootball

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Southampton will not even consider West Ham United‘s opening offer for midfielder Mateus Fernandes, according to journalist Alfie House.

Graham Potter has just got a deal to land goalkeeper Mads Hermansen from Leicester City over the line.

The Hammers are paying a fee of £15.5m, plus £2m in add-ons and those add-ons have been described as ‘tough’ to achieve.

Potter’s priority is now to sign a midfielder and the club have a number of irons in the fire, with interest recently expressed in Lille’s Ngal’ayel Mukau.

It appears though that Southampton’s Fernandes is West Ham’s top midfield target, if they can snare him from the south coast.

West Ham are going in for Fernandes, but the Hammers’ opening offer ‘will not even be considered’ by Southampton.

It is not considered to be even close to the amount needed to make Southampton think about selling Fernandes, while the payment terms are also not acceptable.

Saints rate the Portuguese midfielder highly and are in no mood to let him go for less than they believe him to be worth.

The onus now looks to be fully on West Ham to come up with a proposal for the midfielder that Southampton cannot refuse and all eyes will be on whether they are prepared to do that.

Saints have the 21-year-old Portuguese under contract until the summer of 2029 and are not under any immediate pressure to cash in.

He featured in their 2-1 win over Wrexham in their Championship opener at the weekend.

Southampton are in EFL Cup action this evening when they head to take on Northampton Town and it remains to be seen if Fernandes will be in the matchday squad for the game.