JUST ONE DAY before the transfer window opens and West Ham’s ‘behind the scenes’ strategy to bring a top tier Premier League striker – one with over 200 appearances – to London Stadium has been thrown into doubt.
Operating very much under the radar, the Irons are reported as already having made the approach for Crystal Palace’s Eddie Nketiah by soccer journalist Alan Nixon: A former Arsenal player, Nketiah joined Palace in the summer of ’24 but has just two starts for the South London side this season.
However the approach – and any prospect of persuading Nketiah to move east – appears to have suffered a major blow as the player suffered a hamstring injury in Palace’s encounter with Nketiah’s former club Arsenal.
West Ham’s striker search takes another ‘hit’ as Premier League star suffers hamstring injury
Whether the Hammers entertained any realistic notion of signing Nketiah is now largely irrelevant: With a likely layoff for several weeks the former Gooner looks to have ruled himself out of any move to relegation – threatened West Ham this time around.
Good ol’ West Ham striker curse in action or more likely just bad luck for the player and for West Ham – who now have to cross out one of their top names on Nuno’s January shopping list.
One down, fourteen other names – apparently – still to go.
A blessing in disguise maybe ? He has had so many injuries hopefully we get Felipe and Durosinmi or Vupotnik or Jorge Nketiah will score some goals but he is also likely to be injured.