West Ham hand Fulham boost in £40m Man Utd transfer chase

Fulham appear to have had their position as 'frontrunners' to win the transfer race for Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay strengthened amid reports that Premier League rivals West Ham are not interested in the player.

The Cottagers have been heavily linked with the Scotland international, who could be regarded as a potential replacement for Bayern Munich-bound Joao Palhinha - although the Fulham man has had that transfer kicked into the long grass again this month. ManchesterWorld had reported that the London club was preparing a bid for McTominay, who is valued at around £40 million by the Red Devils.

West Ham and Newcastle United had also been tipped to have transfer interest in the 27-year-old, who appears to have been deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford and would represent a healthy profit having progressed through the academy. The Hammers had bid £40 million for the player last summer but that deal never came to fruition as former manager David Moyes turned to Edson Alvarez instead.

It had been rumoured that Julen Lopetegui could use that already registered West Ham interest to relaunch a bid but Claret and Hugh now report that a club insider has confirmed that any McTominay links had ended when Moyes quit the London Stadium. Instead, the Hammers are looking to strengthen forward options this season with the centre of the park far from a priority.

McTominay's current Manchester United deal is set to expire next summer but the club does hold an option for another year. The midfielder was involved in Euro 2024 action with Scotland with his nation knocked out in the Group Stage. He made 43 appearances in all competitions for his club last season, scoring 10 goals and picking up three assists in a confident campaign.

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Speaking about the failed West Ham deal last summer, David Moyes recently told BBC Sport: "Lots of managers have hard luck stories about players that get away and McTominay is one of those for me because I tried to sign him for West Ham last summer.

"It was always going to be hard to replace Declan Rice with any one player when he joined Arsenal, and we were not planning to do that - we wanted to bring in a couple of midfielders instead. He is a good all-round midfielder, but to me his best attributes are arriving in the area, or the edges of it, at the right time to score or make some chances.

"McTominay was a player who I felt I needed at the time, but we didn’t quite get it over the line and he went on to score a lot of big goals for Manchester United last season instead."