Julen Lopetegui overjoyed with 23-Yr West Ham midfielder…

West Ham are set to make a new £33million offer for N’Golo Kante “quickly” after their initial bid was rejected, according to Sebastien Vidal.

Writing on his personal X account (20 July), the sports journalist reports that the Hammers had an initial £25million bid turned down by Al-Ittihad.

But they are planning to return with a new offer quickly to get a deal over the line, according to one source very close to the matter, with Julen Lopetegui very keen on the 33-year-old despite his price tag far exceeding £20m [Sky Sports Germany, 19 July].

A new midfielder was never seen as a priority for West Ham this summer, but the opportunity to sign Kante doesn’t come around very often.

The World Cup winner is keen to return to London [GiveMeSport, 19 July], but he doesn’t want to push through a move away from Saudi [L’Equipe, 19 July] and that means the onus is on the Hammers to agree a deal that they find acceptable.

Kante is also open to taking a major pay cut, which suggests he is more than open to completing a deal to move to the London Stadium.