West Ham Now Face AC Milan Competition For Highly Rated Defender | OneFootball

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Serie A giants AC Milan have now joined the race for West Ham United defensive target Tiago Gabriel, who the Rossoneri want to sign in the summer transfer window.

West Ham are fighting to stay up following a poor start to the campaign which saw Graham Potter sacked as manager.

Nuno Espirito Santo is fire-fighting and he recently admitted that he has not had the time to follow his home Portuguese league due to the intense relegation battle at the London club.

West Ham worked to boost the defence in the winter transfer window and managed to land Axel Disasi on loan from London rivals Chelsea.

The business West Ham did in the winter window was hailed by one former Premier League star and it could well pay off.

One good transfer window will not be enough of a repair job at the London Stadium though, with the summer window crucial, and West Ham are already looking at targets.

In the winter window, the Irons were keen on Lecce’s highly rated central defender, Gabriel, who the Italians were not willing to let go of.

The Premier League club are still keen on the Portugal Under-21 international and could go back in the summer window, however they will now face heavyweight competition.

According to Italian outlet Calciomercato.it, AC Milan are now targeting Gabriel, having been impressed with his performances in Serie A.

It has been suggested that Rossoneri are already working to make him part of Massimiliano Allegri’s defensive line.

Napoli have also been keen on the 21-year-old centre-back, but it was Lecce have only been encouraged to hike their valuation of Gabriel.

It has been suggested that AC Milan are willing to pay about €15m for Gabriel, which is significantly less than Lecce’s €20m valuation.

The Rossoneri, though, believe that if the Salentini are relegated to Serie B at the end of this term, they could get the defender on a cut-price deal.

That factor could also be something which is in West Ham’s mind, although the Hammers may need to survive themselves to take advantage.