Report: Hammers up offer for striker

The report comes from Le1o Sport, who say that €15m had been rejected by the struggling Ligue 1 club and to be perfectly frank an increase of €10 million at a stroke doesn’t usually figure in West Ham’s modus operandi.

However, the claim is we have lodged a “revised offer” of €25m, including bonuses for Ekitike but, according to Le10 Sport, their latest bid is “still insufficient” for Reims with the player not out of contract until 2024.

In fact, as per the Mail, Reims want €30m, plus bonuses and also a sell-on percentage. The bonuses they are understood to be looking at are around  €10m, while the sell-on clause  they are chasing is 25 per cent.

ClaretandHugh says: It really has never been in the Hammers psyche to up bids by anything like the figures mentioned here so that in itself is reason to have a few doubts. With just four days to go we are still waiting, with most hoping, players would have been through the door to cope with the January games. At 19 this kid seems to be a reasonable player on the stats but then so does Adam Hlozek who – at the same age –  has regularly been mentioned by certain pundits citing our Czech connection as their main reason for doing so. With Moyes and the Irons keeping things toghter to their chest than previously only time will tell. But we have our doubts.