• Tottenham keen to sign midfielder and will make improved offer
• Parker ‘not for sale at any price’ said West Ham after first bid
Harry Redknapp will test West Ham United’s resolve over Scott Parker by making a renewed attempt to sign him from Upton Park before the closure of the transfer window. The Tottenham Hotspur manager is expected to offer the striker Robbie Keane to sweeten the deal.
Redknapp wants another body in central midfield, even though he has signed the 21-year-old Brazil midfielder Sandro from Internacional for £6m, and he has looked at Parker, Lassana Diarra of Real Madrid and Internazionale’s Sulley Muntari.
Redknapp has already seen a £7m bid for Parker turned down but, in keeping with the Tottenham strategy of going down to the wire on deadline day, he is ready to go back to West Ham, his former club, with an improved offer.
He knows that Parker, West Ham’s captain and key player, would welcome the chance to consider the move, despite its potential for acrimony, yet there is resistance to the sale at boardroom level at Upton Park. When the club’s co-chairman David Sullivan rejected Tottenham’s £7m offer at the end of July, he was categorical on the situation.
“I made a promise that I would not sell Scott and I will not, for any amount of money, break that promise to the West Ham supporters,” he said. “Scott is not for sale at any price, to anyone.”
Parker has three years to run on his West Ham contract and the club have offered him a lucrative new five-year deal, which he has not yet signed.
Keane has grown frustrated at his fringe role at Tottenham and Avram Grant, the West Ham manager, is on record as saying that he likes the Ireland striker.
Redknapp watched one of his attacking targets, the Sevilla striker Luís Fabiano, commit his future to his current employers by signing a two-year contract extension today. Redknapp had admitted that the Brazil international was “a player I like” but Tottenham were put off by Sevilla’s valuation. “One year left on his contract, in excess of £24m-£25m for a 29-year-old – the figures don’t stack up,” Redknapp said.
The Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon will see a specialist tomorrow about an ankle problem that has bothered him of late. He has been left out of the England squad for the upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland.
West Ham hope to conclude a loan deal for the Everton centre-half Joseph Yobo. Fabio Daprelà, the 19-year-old Swiss defender, has left West Ham to sign a five‑year deal with the Italian club Brescia.
West Ham UnitedTottenham HotspurTransfer windowDavid Hytnerguardian.co.uk
