West Ham United have gone in with an official bid for Tottenham Hotspur target Conor Gallagher, which Chelsea are considering, according to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano.

Chelsea are prepared to cash in on Gallagher this summer, if offered an acceptable sum, and he has drawn interest from several sides.

Newcastle United, long time admirers, have cooled their interest, but West Ham and Tottenham are ready to battle for the midfielder.

Now West Ham have gone in with a bid of around £40m for Gallagher in the hopes that will prove acceptable for Chelsea.

The Stamford Bridge side have not yet responded to West Ham’s proposal and talks are set to take place in the coming hours and days.

West Ham recently banked a windfall from selling Declan Rice to Arsenal and have money to spend.

Boss David Moyes is keen for midfield additions and now wants Gallagher bringing to the London Stadium.

It remains to be seen how Tottenham will react to West Ham going in with a bid for Gallagher, with Ange Postecoglou also keen to strengthen.

Spurs have made Harry Kane error Liverpool avoided with Philippe Coutinho as Man Utd lurks

Liverpool knows the key difference between Philippe Coutinho and Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane as Daniel Levy reportedly receives a dramatic ultimatum.

In the 2018 summer transfer window, Liverpool shelled out a whopping $203m (£157m/€182m) on four players — goalkeeper Alisson, midfielders Fabinho and Naby Keita and attacker Xherdan Shaqiri.

Still the club’s biggest single-window spend under FSG (though that could change this year), it was largely financed by the blockbuster $188m (£146m/€169m) sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in January.

Five and a half years on, Liverpool’s Premier League rival Spurs may be about to sell its star player to a European giant too.

On Sunday, The Mirror relayed a ‘stunning twist’ regarding the future of Harry Kane, with Spurs owner Joe Lewis informing chairman Daniel Levy that he won’t allow the striker to run down his contract and leave on a free transfer in 2024.

Levy has been given an ultimatum — commit Kane to a new contract, or cash in while you still can.

The problem for Spurs is that Kane has yet to give any indication that he’ll sign a new deal, as per The Athletic, even though the club is apparently willing to pay him $513k (£400k/€463k) per week.

This will spark excitement in Munich after Bayern saw two bids for the Englishman rejected, the second of which was worth $90m (£70m/€81m) plus add-ons. Manchester United, meanwhile, is understood be back on ‘red alert’, having previously given up hope of signing Kane this summer.

Now, though, there’s hope that Lewis’ stance could drive down the player’s price and compel Spurs to sell.

The Lilywhites would still bank one of the largest fees ever received for a number nine, but it still wouldn’t compare to the windfall Liverpool received for Coutinho, when Kane could well have attracted an even higher fee had he been sold at an earlier stage of his contract.

Coutinho had only signed a five-year contract six months before Barcelona tried to buy him and a year before he eventually left.

Spurs will insist that the decision to keep Kane this long has been handsomely rewarded, pointing to an unparalleled return of 280 goals in 435 matches. But that’s an individual achievement, and it’s better to focus on what the team has accomplished in that period — zero major trophies, and only one top-four finish in the last four seasons.

The Kane money would be put towards a replacement center-forward, an elite talent no doubt but an inherent downgrade given the caliber of available strikers relative to the one Spurs currently have. Regardless of who it is, we can be almost certain they won’t have the kind of transformative effect on Tottenham that, say, a $192m (£150m/€174m) sale a couple of years ago may have done.

Yes, letting your biggest name go is ostensibly a step back, but sometimes it allows you to take multiple steps forward, and raise the collective ceiling of your squad.

Alisson and Fabinho, in conjunction with January arrival Virgil van Dijk, took Liverpool from a top-four team that could beat the best on its day to one of the best full stop. The Coutinho money effectively turned the Reds into a side that was ready to win the biggest prizes.

While Liverpool resisted Barcelona’s advances at first, the developing Kane saga offers further evidence — as if it were needed at this point — that it was the right call to cash in on a wantaway superstar when a stratospheric offer was on the table.

Coutinho has infamously struggled since he left Liverpool, reduced now to a squad player at Aston Villa, whereas Kane would be expected to remain prolific wherever he went.

But even if the Brazilian had lived up to Barcelona’s hopes, the Reds would still have been better off, having sacrificed one world-class player for two in areas that truly needed it. And you could argue Spurs should have taken a similar approach with Kane long ago.