Encouragingly, the same old, same old names appear to be falling by the wayside as West Ham are linked with younger, fitter, faster and less expensive striker options. The recent reports (which I have studiously ignored) relating to Tammy Abraham ignore his age, fitness issues and cost.
So to see RB Salzburg’s Karim Konaté reported today in the dailymail.co.uk as one of West Ham’s top striker choices is a reinforcement of all things good which we are hopping to see from the Potter / Macaulay recruitment combo this summer. Konaté was featured last month in a C and H report thanks to his prolific scoring this season in the Austrian Bundesliga – 24 goals in 47 appearances speaks both of his fitness and goal scoring prowess.
At just 21 years of age, the Ivorian has already been capped by his country 19 times which speaks for his talent. Likely to be priced around £15 million plus, he’s an ideal example of a player on an upward trajectory with much to gain from a move to the Premier League.
As described by breakingthelines.com in 2023, Konaté is already beginning to deliver on the potential observed two years ago:
“Karim Konate is arguably the most exciting talent to come out of the Ivory Coast in the past couple of years. Providing the physicality of Sebastian Haller, the dribbling of Jeremie Boga, and the finishing of Wilfried Zaha, Konate is the complete package.”
Yes please, just what the doctor ordered. Convincing him to come and join ‘the project’ at West Ham will be the hard sell.
Am I the only one who is worried by all the Africans being linked with the Africans cup coming up we’d have no players dec/ march
“Convincing him to come and join ‘the project’ at West Ham will be the hard sell.”
‘How do you fancy living in London, playing Premier League football and earning 6x what you do at the moment?’
Yeah tricky one that.
The way I see it with players like this, provided they can do the business, it’s a win-win for them:
1) They do well and the club does well – there’s an incentive for them to stay and carry on doing well
2) They do well, and the club does…not quite so well – because they’ve individually shown how good they are, other potentially more successful clubs come knocking, and the player gets a move
That should be the argument to make, until such time as we become one of those clubs that players want to move to when they leave clubs like we are at the moment.
How good’s cloning technology ? Perhaps Westham can clone 5 Bowen’s and 5 Wan Bissaka’s .
I think I’ll write next season off.
Sullivan’s Barrow Boy, Petticoat Lane approach has no place in the Premier League.
We’re a big club with amazing fans but being held back by this muppet.
Sod off, Sully !
The Austrian League is no marker for talent. Remember the furore around Patson Daka and his potential before he went to Leicester? Turned out well, didn’t it?
No more has beens players we have had a belly full of them over the past years since Sullivan and co have been in charge hopefully the penny has finally dropped but I won’t hold my breath on that one
Please no to Tammy, Don’t need another crocked striker who thinks his better than he is !