West Ham suffer blow in bid to keep Arsenal, Chelsea & QPR target Diame

By Nick Wright Saturday, January 19, 2013
10:50 AM

Transfer news: West Ham have failed in their attempts to renegotiate Mohamed Diame’s contract as they battle to keep hold of the in-demand midfielder, manager Sam Allardyce has revealed.

Senegal international Diame has emerged as a January target for Arsenal, Chelsea and QPR and has a release clause of £3.5million included in the contract he signed when he arrived on a free transfer from Wigan in the summer.

West Ham are desperate to keep hold of the combative 25-year-old and were hoping to amend the cut-price release clause in his contract by offering him a new deal.

But Allardyce admits Diame’s future is out of his control and says talks between the club and the player have so far proved fruitless.

“I am not in control of that,” he said. “The owners are.”

He continued: “What they’ve tried to pursue hasn’t been successful at the moment.

“They tried to renegotiate the contract but they haven’t been successful.”

Diame returned to West Ham’s starting line-up in Wednesday’s FA Cup replay defeat to Manchester United after a month on the sidelines with a hamstring tear.

He is expected to feature against QPR on Saturday but it remains to be seen whether he will still be with the Hammers beyond the end of the transfer window.