Report says West Ham ‘came closest’ to signing Manchester City ace before Axel Disasi joined
Considering that it took until deadline day for Axel Disasi to finally put pen to paper with West Ham United, it should not come as a surprise that the Premier League outfit had drawn up a healthy list of alternatives.
A list which included, but was not limited to, Manchester City’s Nathan Ake.
Pep Guardiola never seemed too keen on the idea of letting the Dutchman go, though. Not with so many competitions to aim for. Much to Pep’s delight, Ake had serious reservations too about swapping the title challengers of the Etihad to the relegation battlers of East London.
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According to West Ham United insider ExWHUEmployee, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side submitted an offer for the experienced Dutch international.
Ake, though, had little interest in moving mid-season to a club in the drop zone.
Nathan Ake set to leave Manchester City as West Ham United look to keep Axel Disasi
Four months later, while Axel Disasi looks to extend an impressive run of five clean sheets in ten Premier League appearances since joining on loan from Chelsea, Ake is hoping to sign off at Man City with what would be a fifth top-flight winners’ medal.
The Athletic report that the Chelsea academy graduate is expected to leave City before his contract expires in 2027.
Italian publication Tuttomercatoweb add that Ake has been ‘offered’ – presumably via his representatives – to Serie A trio Juventus, Milan and an Inter side who already employ Manuel Akanji.
TMW have an interesting snippet regarding West Ham, too.
They claim that the Hammers actually ‘came closest to signing him’ during the January window, despite interest from both Milan and Barcelona. TMW do not say how close though. Perhaps West Ham were the only side to make a genuine offer for a defender Man City value at around £12 million.
Either way, as impressive an addition as the 31-year-old Dutch international might have proved to be, you would be hard pushed finding a single West Ham supporter who would be willing to swap Axel Disasi for even a prime-time Franz Beckenbauer these days.
Hammers News have been informed, by a source close to the club, that West Ham plan to sign Disasi permanently should Nuno keep their heads above water.
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Nuno was ‘really concerned’ at one point…
Nuno Espirito Santo heads to Brentford confident in his defence
Heading into Saturday’s 3pm kick-off at Brentford, the Disasi/Konstantinos Mavropanos partnership has Nuno sounding far more optimistic than when West Ham were stung by the Bees on their own soil back in October.
In addition to keeping five clean sheets in ten games since Disasi made his debut at Turf Moor in February, the Hammers’ record when it comes to defending set-pieces has also seen a marked improvement.
“Brentford are really good at that aspect of the game but we can see the importance of set-pieces, the amount of goals that are scored (from them),” Nuno said on Thursday.
“But we are positive and confident that we can handle (these) situations.”
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