Transfer Centre

Slaven Bilic rules out move for Alexandre Lacazette

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 11 August 2016

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic rules out the possibility of signing Alexandre Lacazette this summer, but does hint at one more new arrival to the club.

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has ruled out making a move for Alexandre Lacazette in this summer's transfer window.

The Lyon striker was thought to be on the Hammers' radar earlier in the summer, but they have since broken their club-record transfer fee to sign Andre Ayew, while Jonathan Calleri is also on the verge of joining.

Bilic confirmed that he may be bringing in one more player before the end of the window, but insists that it will not be Lacazette.

When asked about a possible move for the Arsenal target, Bilic told reporters: "100% not. We need a squad but I'm happy. That is basically pretty much it. Maybe, I spoke to the chairman and Tony Henry that, with or without European but especially if we qualify, we need one more player to have a good balance, good numbers of course.

"Maybe we are going to try and get one more but I'm happy with the squad now. I said after the Domzale game that we were going to add five players to that squad and it was written we were going to make five new signings.

"No, no, we were expecting some to come back and some who were injured, we signed what we have signed and we are happy with that. We had it all planned, for example the position of left-back, we wanted to sign even before [Aaron] Cresswell got injured because it was a position where we were lacking so we really wanted to do it."

West Ham will start the new Premier League season away to Chelsea on Monday.