West Ham are keeping a careful eye on the negotiations between Liverpool and Crystal Palace over the possible transfer of Christian Benteke
And although the Belgian front man is not a priority target, agents representing the player are aware there’s an interest from the Irons which may be contributing to the delay in Palace and the Reds doing a deal.
And Eagles boss Alan Pardew may well fear a replay of the situation which saw Michy Batsuhayi pull the plug on a deal with the club opting instead for Chelsea.
Benteke cost £32.5m when he joined Liverpool from Aston Villa a year ago and he is on a £120,000-a-week contract and, with the club adding James Tomkins to their squad today at a fee of £10m, their ambition is clear.
But we were told: “Obviously if a player we have displayed an interest in is involved in talks elsewhere, we would be keeping an eye on things.
“It’s all a bit of a game – everybody knows who else is interested including the player and the agents but there are other options to be considered and looked at.
“We know who we want and we are in touch with every situation involving them.”
He isn’t worth 32 million and if Palace are prepared to pay it let them, we have Carroll when he is available to fullfil his role, if we could sign him for 16 million to 20 million then it would be about right but the mickey mousers have already supposedly turned down a £25m bid. Milik from Ajax is available for less so we should try and sign him and hopefully Jannsen, it’s gone a bit quiet about Wilson from Bournemouth at the moment but he potentially is a top player, he has all the attributes and he shouldn’t cost a fortune.
Apparently Arsenal are being linked with Morata, Lacazette and Lukaku – we should go for Giroud. Alongside Caroll and with Payet supplying the crosses, he would score a stackful.
I definitely agree on Giroud, he does miss a few but he is a real handful and also scores some great goals, Bilic really rates him also but I can’t see Wenger selling him even if he does sign Lacazette because he gives the gooners the ability to play long balls which they did a lot of last season when the passing failed.
Wilson signed a new contract with Bournemouth
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, NOT BENTEKE
Hey Boleyn Boy say pretty please & hopefully won’t happen
Why are we looking at spending the same amount as we were planning on lacazette/batman, and buying a much worse player with a similar style to a player we already own? Said this on another post earlier, we should be putting the money up and going for someone young and world class like icardi or dybala, both proven players with much more to come.