Blow for Chelsea as London rivals move ahead in the race to sign £35m star – report

Chelsea target Jean Michael Seri could end up at West Ham United as the Hammers have made a bid for the Nice midfielder, according to reports.

TuttoMercatoWeb (h/t Daily Star) claims that the Hammers are closest to landing the Ivorian midfielder as they look to start well under new manager Manuel Pellegrini.

This would come as a massive blow to the Blues, who had targetted the midfielder throughout the summer. Seri has a release clause of £35m and a move to Barcelona could not be completed last season. The 26-year-old played 31 Ligue 1 games last season, scoring 2 goals and providing 5 assists.

There is a lot of competition for the Ivorian as Napoli’s new manager Carlo Ancelotti is also interested in signing Seri.

The other problem regarding the move for Seri is that we are still unsure who our new manager would be and that certainly is having an impact in our transfer dealings.

Until a player knows who he is going to play under, he will not commit his future to a club and Seri might be playing the waiting game to see what happens at Chelsea before deciding on his future.

If we are to lose the player to another Premier League club, it would be extremely frustrating given that our interest in Seri has been there for a while. Hopefully, we can negotiate with the player and give him what he wants to ensure he does not sign for the Hammers.