It is no secret that West Ham are shopping in the January window to strengthen both midfield and front line departments. Doubts over Fullkrug’s desire to stay, and Antonio’s predicament make the need for frontline reinforcement urgent indeed. The ‘creativity blight’ in midfield similarly needs addressing, especially with Paquetá’s form way off and his attention on his forthcoming FA hearing.
Considerable recruitment in both departments is essential. Whether a loan or outright purchase, West Ham are clearly scouting and looking at options. One who has been reportedly on the radar is Lyon’s playmaker Rayan Cherki.
Lyon are in dire straits financially, facing punitive relegation and keen – but not yet desperate- to offload players. Tim Steidten has long been interested in highly-rated Cherki, who’s also been on the radar of PSG, Liverpool and Madrid. Lyon and West Ham do have a good working relationship following successful dealings – which might well be helpful in the coming window.
Cherki has been flirting with a move but from today’s report it sounds as if he is getting more resigned about his future away from Lyon.
Reported by PSG Talk, “Cherki was asked about his future heading into the January window on Thursday after OL’s 3-2 UEFA Europa League win over Eintracht Frankfurt.
“For now, there are still two matches left [before the winter transfer window], and we’ll see at the end of the season if I am still here.”
Which sounds like a move is highly likely in January. All of which could be very good news for West Ham but again I’d ask the question, given the choice between PSG, Liverpool, Real Madrid and West Ham, who is he likely to choose!
And that is the reason West Ham continually overpay for players as it is the only way to compete with ‘top’ teams and punch above our weight.
If it works – as in the case with Max Killman – great – but in other instances when a player doesn’t mesh it becomes impossible to recoup the transfer fee: A whole litany of failures speak testimony: Seb Haller, Gianluca Scamacca, Nayef Aguerd- all of which were bought for top dollar and (the jury is still out on Aguerd) sold at a loss.
Sadly, given the current dressing room unrest I can’t imagine why any half decent player would want to join us.
We have a good working relationship with Lyon following previous successful transfer dealings do we? Is that the same Lyon who in January accused us of a lack of respect and threatened to take further action when it was iniitally thought that the transfer of Said Benrahma failed to complete by 11pm on deadline day!
Thought we were keeping faith with Lope the Dope so that we don’t buy any players? Then in February we appoint a coach in nobody else wants?
Sounds like the sort of thing Sullivan would do.