With West Ham United’s move for Harry Maguire falling through, the Hammers started to look elsewhere for defensive reinforcements.
Earlier this week, Fabrizio Romano reported that West Ham had turned to Konstantinos Mavropanos with talks taking place and the player keen on a return to the Premier League.
The news had originally been broken by ExWHUEmployee on Tuesday night, with the West Ham insider confirming that the club were in talks with Stuttgart over the transfer.
Bild reported earlier in the summer that a transfer for the former Arsenal centre-back was very possible this window, but it could take a while to go through.
The likes of Napoli and Wolves had also been linked with a move, but the West Ham transfer seems like it is now on the verge of being completed.
Exclu: Dinos Mavropanos set to complete West Ham transfer for €22m fee + €3m in add-ons. 🇬🇷
Arsenal set to benefit from sell-on clause, as revealed weeks ago.
Greek international excited about return to the Premier League. pic.twitter.com/zDg9PIxISD
— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley) August 19, 2023
We know the Hammers were willing to offer £30m for Harry Maguire, so they have the funds and the desire to get a deal done for a defender.
Mavropanos has a sell-on clause in his Stuttgart contract, so Arsenal will take home some of the proceeds from this move.
The centre-back has been linked with a transfer away from Stuttgart since before he even officially joined them.
Reports last spring suggested he was going to make his loan move permanent and then immediately leave, which didn’t happen.
But after another year battling relegation with Stuttgart, you’d imagine the 25-year-old might feel the time is now right to move on.
Stuttgart only avoided relegation with a win in their relegation play-off against Hamburg, having finished 16th in the Bundesliga regular season.
Arsenal sold Mavropanos for €3.2m last summer.
