West Ham are ready to step up their interest in Joe Hart by handing the Manchester City outcast a way out of the Etihad this summer, reports the London Evening Standard.
Hart is free to leave City this summer after being deemed surplus to requirements by Pep Guardiola but has found it difficult to find potential suitors due to the club’s £20m valuation.
The Hammers would prefer a one-year loan but City are only looking to offload the England international on a permanent deal this summer.
Slaven Bilic’s side have only signed Pablo Zabaleta on a free transfer this summer and are desperate to add new faces after their £15m bid for Stoke forward Marko Arnautovic was rejected on Monday.
The West Ham manager switched between Darren Randolph and Adrian between the sticks last season and wants to make a statement signing this summer in the form of Hart to show the ambition of the club.
Hart has been left out of City’s tour of the America in a bid to help him accelerate a move away from the club and West Ham are hopeful they can conclude a deal by the end of the week, although face competition from newly promoted Newcastle.
David de Gea: Only Joe Hart (77) has kept more clean sheets than De Gea (75) in the Premier League since August 2011 pic.twitter.com/xMYBoXRNbe
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) June 8, 2017
The 30-year-old endured a difficult time on loan at Italian side Torino last season and was culpable for England coming minutes away from losing to rivals Scotland in their World Cup qualification campaign last month after conceding two speculative free-kicks towards the end.
In fact, only Josip Posavec (7) committed more errors that directly led to an opposition goal in Serie A last season than Hart (5).
For more stats on Joe Hart, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
