The fervent hope of West Ham fans is that the current frenetic battle now gripping the boardroom does not allow the club to freeze in the summer transfer window. Whilst the Staveley and Kretinsky manoeuvrings monopolise headlines they must not be allowed to derail the Hammers’ attempts to overhaul the squad and bring in the handful of players tasked with filling the gaps and preparing for the tilt at automatic promotion.
After pre-season, the club looks way short of pace and threat going forward, which explains the links to strikers and wide men of late. The optimists amongst us will start to believe (as we always seem to ) the rumours that the club are about to shell out on a new striker..top of the list seems to be Republic of Ireland centre forward Troy Parrott: As per Vavel.com:
“While also establishing himself as the focal point of Ireland’s forward line at international level, the Hammers have earmarked the 24-year-old as their primary forward target who has an £18 million price tag.
Linked with West Ham, Everton and Leeds last winter: Troy Parrott
Everton, Leeds United, Porto and Stuttgart are all reportedly interested in the striker whose AZ contract lasts until 2029, but West Ham are willing to meet the asking price, potentially making him the Sky Bet Championship’s most expensive signing.”
(Incidentally beating the £15.8m which Wolverhampton Wanderers paid for Ruben Neves in July 2017)
Which would prove exciting on two fronts: Not only bringing in a striker who can actually hit the net at this level and grow with West Ham post -promotion: But more than likely signing Troy Parrott would signal the end of a brief, but dismal West Ham career for Pablo whose failure to achieve anything in Claret and Blue is well documented by this web site.
And, believe it or not, they’ll both be around the same price.
Troy Parrott = Jordon Hugill
Neves for £17m. Incredible business, why aren’t we seeing more of this given we have the same stakeholders associated with our club?