Pelle may sell Hammers favourite to raise cash

(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Michail Antonio may well be approaching crunch time in his Hammers career with just seven games of the season left.

Speculation has been around for some time that the 29 year old is on thin ice under Manuel Pellegrini who needs to sell this summer in order to raise cash for reinforcements.

And £15 million rated Antonio may be the one player on the books he could be prepared to sacrifice as he looks to bring in his more favoured technical players.

The winger/striker and former Hammer of the Year has been a favourite with Hammers fans for  four years and a contract until 2021 leaves the club in a position to get a good price.

With a striker, notably Maxi Gomez, high on his list of targets and with around £25m plus money raised from sales to play with, there’s a better than 50/50 chance of the former Nottingham Forest start being allowed to move on.

Palace – who have taken James Tomkins and Cheik Kouyate off us in recent seasons – looks the likely destination should that be the case.

The likes of Arthur Masuaku, Lucas Perez, Pedro Obiang could raise £15 million and Edmilson Fernandes looks set for a move to Firoentina at around £8 million.

Antonio has been very much a fringe figure this term and at one stage was known to be unhappy over the fact that even academy product Grady Diangana was preferred to him.

Were Pelle – or more correctly Mario Husillos – to move him on that would give the manager around over £60 million to splash out.

It’s a sacrifice he may be ready to make as the club enters its second season under him.