West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has stated that Manuel Lanzini will not ask to leave the club should Liverpool try persuading him as Coutinho’s replacement.
The ‘Coutinho to Barcelona’ story is heating up ceaselessly and it seems just a matter of time before the Catalans snatch up the Brazilian to fill Neymar’s void. Liverpool, on their part, are standing firm in their stance of not letting him go and have rejected two massive bids for the Samba star.
Coutinho, however, has already handed in a transfer request, insisting his desire to move to Camp Nou. Should the unthinkable happen, Liverpool will need to bring in a feasible replacement and West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini has been touted as a possible option.
Their pursuit of the Argentine may well get cut short as Slaven Bilic has confirmed that Lazini ‘likes it here’. He, however, confessed that the 25-year-old may leave after a season or two, but he hoped he will continue at West Ham this season.
“I speak to Manu every day, he is happy,” Bilic was quoted by Daily Telegraph. “He feels at home, he feels liked. You can see it, you don’t have to talk to him and you can see by how he is smiling and is happy.
“He broke into the Argentina national team, so he knows if he plays for West Ham he has a chance of getting a better contract with West Ham and playing for Argentina.
“I am sure he is going to stay with us. He knows he is wanted. He knows the chairman and the board. He was on loan and we took an option even before we had to. We activated it with him. He was wanted and was voted the Players’ Player of the Year. It is a good thing also, it makes him feel really wanted. He likes it here.
“You know the chairman. When the player comes and when he is on one sort of contract and he is not very well known, and he plays good the chairman is very happy to give him a new contract. So it will sooner or later happen with Manuel if he continues to be the kind of player he has been for us.”
Bilic faced a kind-of similar situation with Dimitri Payet after the Frenchman forced his way back to Marseille last season, but Bilic insisted that same issue will not be repeated this time around.
“The Payet situation was different, Payet was older, Lanzini is 24. Look in one hand we can’t expect the players to stay forever. Nowadays nobody is staying. But all I’m saying is I hope he stays for this season. The point is now and long term-ish, he’s very happy.”
Lanzini scored an impressive eight goals in a season where West Ham failed miserably and finished outside top ten. He missed the 2017/18 season opener against Manchester United due to an injury.
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