West Ham remain in the hunt for a striker and are understood to have inquired about a top-level forward based overseas today.
Claret and Hugh, along with Hammers Chat Patreon, broke the news on Sunday night that the club are keeping tabs on RB Leipzig forward André Silva.
It is our understanding that nothing has changed regarding Silva, who is very much seen as a backup option. The Portuguese striker has been identified by Hammers data analyst Maximilian Hahns, who has been growing in influence at the London Stadium and recommending a number of players.
Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi remains a target, but Claret and Hugh have been informed by the club that they are concerned about his injury record.
We have also confirmed from a non-West Ham source that a £40m bid was made for Aston Villa striker Jhon Durán during this transfer window. Additionally, there is interest in an unnamed player who has caught the attention of some of the Premier League’s biggest teams.
Enquiries were made this morning by the Hammers regarding the availability of the forward, who would not come cheap. How this aligns with the club’s stance that “we’re up against it with FFP” is uncertain. However, as things stand, West Ham appear to be actively pursuing at least three strikers with the hope of securing one.
However, it would certainly seem that the club are looking to be ambitious in this transfer window.
This is a great opportunity for a striker to make a name for himself, I’m sure like all West Ham supporters that not only we get the right striker but it happens very very soon
“We have also confirmed from a non-West Ham source that a £40m bid was made for Aston Villa striker Jhon Durán during this transfer window.”
…is that not the opposite of a confirmation? Is that not just someone “confirming” that they’ve heard a bid was made?
Think they should be going in for Jonathan David still. From reports, a £30m bid was accepted in the summer, terms with David was agreed and it was only his (unsurprisingly greedy) agent apparently wanting like £10m which caused us to drop out.
If we did make a £40m bid for Duran and David was £30m with a year left on his contract, then with him free in the summer surely £15-20m allows us to spend that £10m to the agent and save £10-15m if we have £40m to splash out on a player.
25yo Canadian Jonathan David is available. His contract with Lille expire this summer. Lille are resigned to losing him, and would rather get E25M now than nothing in summer. He is fast, scores with head and both feet, and plays centrally on the forward line. Anyone seeing his exploits in the Copa America last year would like him. He has scored: goal every two games in French League Un for Ghent and Lille since 2018; 9 goals 18 games Champions league; and 31 goals in 59 appearances for Canada.
Bonus: he would like to play for West Ham.
So why aren’t we moving for him?
This is exactly who I would be hoping this ‘foreign forward’ is referring to.
Ottawa I think the player is seeing out his contract (6 months left) and expects one of the big boys to come in for him end of season. He would probably want European football next season, unlikely with us
Exactly mate …and affordable ….dragging there feet as per usual
It’s absolutely laughable, with the transfer window closing on 3 Feb that there still appears to be no plan in place to replace either Antonio or Fullgrub, even before the car crash or hamstring injury and they’re completely in the dark where they can source an explosive, pacy, forward able to run in behind defender’s or down the channels and score 20 goals a season. It’s not exactly a surprise is it, just the usual low, unacceptable offer’s they know that will be turned down, whilst, hopefully, putting pressure on another club to encourage accepting an equally low offer for a player that wants to leave but the selling club would like to keep! Usual Sullivan non transfer strategy but there’s always the summer window they might just have a plan in place by then!
Yep exactly my point….don’t worry we will hear about the players we can’t get …but not the ones we nay get ….not even sure what bids have been made if any……infuriating
Maximilian Hahn was a Steidten recommendation and came from Werder Bremen about a year ago. He’s a data and technical recruitment analyst, identifies players who have good statistics. It’s good to see method based scouting coming through.
In that case why is he identifying Silva who’s stats are bang average over a long period?
John, weren’t those some of the credentials attributed to Steidten himself when he came on board? The other day I asked if anyone knew who Steidten was looking at to fill this gap in our forward line, because news of his activities seemed to have dried up. Now Hahn seems to be the man of the moment at a time when Steidten should be showing what he is good at.
That 40 million bid for Duran is such a sulli special, namely make a bid you know will be rejected tell the fans “we tried” then bring in a deeply underwhelming injury prone has been but tell the fans we will address the glaring weakness in the squad in the next window. Then in next window monumentally fail to bring in a new striker who isnt old, injury prone and with a dreadful scoring record. Just rinse and repeat this ad infinitum
I might be wrong but I thought I read on this website just a few days ago that we made an offer of £50 mill for Jhon Duran very recently, not £40 mill. Which one is true?
i think the way i read it was we offered 40M last window and have offered 50M this window
I don’t think so Annette, we offered £40m this time round. If I correctly recall we offered Villa £30m last summer and wouldn’t meet the £35m asking price. Now apparently Duran, who has been freely scoring, is valued around £60m plus by Villa. Plenty of names being bandied about,as usual, but I hope we avoid some ageing,injury prone but cheap option…but I wouldn’t count on it 🙄