West Ham’s director of football Mario Husillos is working on bringing Maxi Gomez to the club as a matter of urgency since he and Manuel Pellegrini identified the striker as their No 1 target.
Clever Pellegrini sees him as the ideal replacement for Andy Carroll knowing that the Hammers would lead all other clubs around them in the chase for the 23 year old Celta Vigo player.
He fits the Hammers profile but is not a front man who would attract priority attention from the top six and with the Hammers able to double his personal terms he looks exactly the right fit.
The player is currently on around £35k in La Liga which generally pays around half the salary terms of thos ein the Premier League.
Director of football Husillos will be talking to Gomez’s agents before the Hammers make their bid to Celta Vigo – expected to be on the buy-out figure of £22 million should Vigo be relegated as looks increasingly likely.
Gomez has a decent goals record having scored at nearly one every two goals last season at 17 from 36 and even during a season of struggle this term has managed nine from 28.
He has certainly lost form but he is the sort of striker we need, someone physical but with pace, good awareness, decent in the air and he is young, hopefully if the buyout is halfed we can put together a deal that makes him attractive, then at £22m I think he would have 10 x as many suitors as he would at £44m.