West Ham are interested in re-signing Carlos Tevez but the Argentine has demanded a salary worth £250,000 a week.
Slaven Bilic’s side are in the market for a new striker with Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette one of their top targets, while AC Milan’s Carlos Bacca is another who is on the radar.
Tevez joined West Ham in 2006 and played a key part in keeping the club in the Premier League that season before he moved on to Manchester United.
“We tried to get Tevez but he wanted £250,000 a week,” West Ham’s co-chairman David Sullivan told the Mirror.
“In his last year at Juventus he was great. But 250 grand a week?
"All this business, “I love West Ham”, well it’s 'I love West Ham if they give me £250,000 a week'.
“So how much love is that for West Ham? I actually offered him £150,000 a week to come back plus bonuses."
Sullivan added that he was not prepared to pay such high wages for someone of Tevez's advanced years.
“I thought that was an incredible offer for someone who loves West Ham. And it was a huge gamble for us because he’s 33 now and hasn’t done it in South America," he said.
“We tried to get Tevez but he wanted £250,000 a week – and is he past his best? He hasn’t set the world alight in South America.
“In his last year at Juventus he was great. But £250,000 a week? He’ll probably stay where he is now, but he doesn’t pay a lot of tax down there.
“It wasn’t a publicity stunt, I saw him being our No 1 striker. I was hoping he would reproduce what he did at Juventus a year ago. He was a fantastic player. But where do you draw the line with what you are prepared to pay?”
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- Goal