West Ham United have suffered a huge setback in their pursuit of a top target…

What’s the word?

According to Fabrizio Romano, Amadou Onana prefers a move to Everton rather than joining the Irons.

Writing on Twitter, he stated: “Amadou Onana wants to join Everton over West Ham as proposal has been submitted to Lille, while Filip Kostić has still not accepted West Ham proposal on personal terms”.

With Alan Myers now claiming the deal is in a "very advanced stage", David Moyes will have to be prepared to move very quickly make the midfielder an offer he simply cannot refuse or else lose out to his old club.

Moyes should spend big

With Moyes having reportedly already had a £35m bid accepted, it appears that the only possibly stumbling block with this deal is the player.

If his mind is firmly set on joining Everton, perhaps a larger financial incentive with which the FFP-stricken club cannot compete is in order if West Ham are to lure this promising midfielder to east London.

There is no doubting that he would improve Moyes' team, adding a different dimension to what Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek already offer whilst also becoming a new “leader” within the dressing room, as Belgium under-21 coach Thomas Buffel dubbed him.

Whilst these two rank in the 53rd and 39th percentile respectively for tackles among positional peers in Europe's top five leagues, Onana sits in the top 6%. His game is built around breaking up the play, and he could be the perfect partner to either of the Irons' current midfield starters, who focus slightly more on pushing forward with the ball.

The Belgian also boasts more top-level experience than many of West Ham’s squad given his 41 appearances last season, with eight of those coming in the Champions League.

Perhaps he could use this experience to help the Irons make that step up from sixth and seventh-placed finishes, taking them into the competition in which Onana helped his side to reach the last 16 last term.

Despite registering no assists last season in Ligue 1, his three big chances created and 0.5 key passes per game suggest that he does have the capability to find the killer pass. This job will be made much easier with the intelligent runs of Jarrod Bowen.

In anticipation of any possible late hitches over Onana's mooted move to Merseyside, Moyes should certainly be pleading with the board to immediately give him the funds to convince this “quality” youngster to join, or else he'll probably face the youngster next season in Everton’s royal blue.