West Ham have suffered another transfer setback in their hunt for a replacement striker after having an opening loan bid rejected for the Montpellier striker Gaëtan Laborde.
Friend of this site Jacob Steinberg writing for the Guardian says: “They tried to strike a deal by offering a loan with an obligation to buy Laborde in the summer. Montpellier refused and will consider only a sale, with the asking price for 26-year-old likely to be £16m.”
The twenty-six-year-old is in his third season at Montpellier has six goals and as many assists in 20 Ligue 1 appearances so far this season and is available for around £16 million.
He has two full seasons left on his contract and is seen as a player who could adapt to the Premier League quickly.
The Evening Standard says that Montpellier have no interest in loaning out their striker and only want a straight fee of £16m or above.
Laborde is an experienced head and he has made a total of 142 appearances in Ligue 1, scoring a total of 32 goals and laying on 21 assists.
He has also been capped at various youth levels by France, up to Under-21 level.
Not exactly prolific is he?!
That’s what I thought…
This seems an odd transfer target – Laborde is hardly prolific in a weaker Ligue 1 so I’m not entirely sure what we see in him. He’s also 26/27, which doesn’t fit the Moyes mantra of younger, hungry players who have resale value as we cannot afford another Haller mistake.
I think Moyes deserves the benefit of picking his own striker though, so will back whoever he signs. My thinking is perhaps Moyes doesn’t need a goalscorer – he needs a striker to bring our goalscoring midfielders in to play. Bowen, Soucek, Benhrama etc. have goals in them, so getting a striker in who will be able to stretch play is perhaps what Moyes wants.
Average goals 1 in 5 not exactly prolific is it.
A striker with less than a 1 in 4 record in the French league, Not exactly someone who will improve the squad is it?