Graham Potter’s belated alteration of his attacking formation yesterday almost paid off- the Hammers’ superb Niclas Fullkrug hit the bar in the last few minutes with another quality header: One wonders what West Ham could have achieved with a decent number nine on the pitch from the get-go.
Well documented is West Ham’s interest in bringing Liam Delap to London stadium when the inevitable happens an Ipswich Town are relegated: his £30 million release clause will kick in at that stage but other clubs are circling: londonworld.com perhaps overstate the competition for his signature in their article:
“Chelsea plot Man Utd £30m transfer hijack as West Ham develop contingency plan… Chelsea are ‘very much still pursuing’ Delap, even if it is the Red Devils who are more readily touted as the frontrunners”
Delap will not be short of suitors- but quite why any young player would head to the footballing equivalent of Siberia that is Stamford Bridge – having seen many promising young careers frozen out- is beyond me. Money talks – and if the bids get going properly West Ham will soon find themselves priced out of the market.
The ‘contingency plan’ referred to in the report is the £22million Strasbourg striker Emanuel Emegha who may be a better option for the Hammers to chase, depending upon the outcome of this season’s European qualifications: Strasbourg and Manchester United share owners so will not be able to transfer players between themselves if both qualify for the same European competition, in which cases they’d be ruled out of chasing Emegha.
Graham Potter needs to step up the attacking play in the last few games – West Ham may be looking for strikers but ‘strikers will be looking at West Ham’ and if the Manager refuses to play one but leave two sitting on the bench it does not make the Hammers an attractive destination for a young frontman: Just ask Evan Ferguson right now.
Strasbourg and Manchester United share owners ….????
I think we would still have a fair chance to get Delap as he left City for first team football and we could certainly offer him that. If City can buy him back and then try and resell for a big profit then that could be the end of things, but otherwise we should go all out and offer Danny Ings wages as a £30m fee would be cheap for him.
Sorry Mike I’m missing your point ,I’m saying man City have the option on delap . I believe purely because of the rivalry between the prem clubs man City wouldn’t want sell to prem rivals
Slight inaccuracy here. Strasbourg and Chelsea are both owned by Blue Group. No ties between Strasbourg and ManU(re).
As I keep posting I believe Man City have a £20 mill buy back option on Delap and if they do I doubt they would sell to Man U or possibly not to Chelsea either but I fancy we would still bottom of the list as has been mentioned would he want to come to a club that has also struggled this season .
“Graham Potter needs to step up the attacking play in the last few games – West Ham may be looking for strikers but ‘strikers will be looking at West Ham’ and if the Manager refuses to play one but leave two sitting on the bench it does not make the Hammers an attractive destination for a young frontman: Just ask Evan Ferguson right”
And also strikers will be looking where we finished in the league.That won’t be an attraction neither.
Because of course, every manager/team will go to Champions elect Liverpool and start with 3 strikers on the pitch.