West Ham sign Argentine Manuel Lanzini on loan

West Ham United secure the signing of Manuel Lanzini on a season-long loan from Al Jazira Club. After impressing with his boyhood club, Lanzini was expected to earn a big money move to Europe but he surprisingly opted to join UAE based side Al Jazira instead for a fee of around £5.25million.

Argentinian midfielder Manuel Lanzini has joined West Ham on a season-long loan, co-chairman David Gold has announced.

Lanzini, who has been capped four times by Argentina’s U20 set-up, returned to River Plate in 2012 and went on to score his first goal for the club in a 2-1 defeat to Belgrano in the opening game of the season.

Lanzini, 22, previously had spells at River Plate and Fluminense. I’m very happy and I look forward to meeting my new teammates.

He becomes the Hammers’ seventh summer recruit, following the arrivals of Darren Randolph, Dimitri Payet, Pedro Obiang, Stephen Hendrie, Angelo Ogbonna and Carl Jenkinson.

“He’s not very strong but he rises to challenges, so I hope he could be a big one for us”.

He signed for Al Jazira in the summer of 2014 and went on to score on eight occasions in 24 appearances for the side last season. It will test my ability in one of the best leagues in the world, so I am looking forward to getting started.