According to L’Equipe tonight, West Ham have submitted a 3rd offer to Lyon for Alexandre Lacazette of a staggering €52m which would seem to meet the asking price Lyon have set for the French International striker.

The Hammers identified their main target as soon as the 2015/16 season ended and have been negotiating on and off with Lyon for the last 3-4 weeks, and despite claims from other media sources that the Hammers had totally dropped interest in the player our own ExWHUEmployee and other Insiders on the site maintained that David Sullivan was not one to give up easily when he has a main target in his sights.

Even if the bid is accepted the Hammers still have to agree terms with Lacazette and as we witnessed with Payet last year that deal took some time and some real effort to get over the line, but at the end of the day our owners made it happen, so who’s to say they can’t repeat that feat once again.

The €52m quoted would currently come in around £40m although the way the pound is going tonight it could be nearer to £45m by tomorrow.  If that fee was to be accepted and Lacazette actually became a West Ham player it would be the 5th highest record transfer fee paid by a British club, only behind Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal.

It seems West Ham are starting to take some huge steps up the Premier League ladder in more ways than one.