West Ham star valued a £51 million by Premier League and London rivals Chelsea

Edson Alvarez, 26, signed for West Ham in 2023 and has already made 20 Premier League appearances. The defensive star came from Ajax where he spent four years, making over 100 appearances for the club but during his time in the Netherlands, it was another Premier League side who had shown a huge amount of interest in the Mexican but received no fruits for their labour.

Dutch agent Nathan van Kooperen revealed that Chelsea "wanted to go very far" in signing Alvarez a year before his eventual move to the Hammers. Alvarez had been exceptionally impressive during his stay in the Eredivisie following his €15m move from America in July 2019 and established himself as a key figure in Ajax's squad. While he eventually moved away last summer in a €38 million (£32.4m) deal, he could have signed with the Blues for a figure much higher than this.

Chelsea were reportedly pushing hard to put his name to paper with the then-new owner Todd Boehly keen to have an immediate impact on Chelsea's squad, however a deal could not be reached and Alvarez stayed another year. The defender would later reveal his disappointment that things had failed to work out has he had hoped.

Alvarez has been on impressive form at West Ham since his arrival but the Dutch agent revealed things could have been very different and confessed that "Chelsea wanted to go very far. They wanted to do everything they could to bring him to Chelsea. Ajax just had no replacement ready, so they did not want to cooperate. They thought Champions League football was very important. They went up to €60m."

The 26-year-old, who began his career with Pachuca and America, has represented Mexico on 74 occasions, scoring four goals in the process.