Brazilian striker Gabriel Barbosa has regularly been linked with the Irons over three transfer windows since Manuel Pellegrini arrived at West Ham.
But a new claim from the man who stood firmly by his story that Seb Haller would join the Irons suggests the striker could well become a serious target for us again.
Italian journalist Nicola Shira withstood the fiercest possible criticism from the German press when breaking the Haller for Hammers story in January.
But having been proved right, he is now saying on Twitter of Barbosa: “Gabigol said no to two rich offerings from China (Guangzhou Evergrande is Beijing Guoan) for January. ”
And he has made it clear that interested clubs like West Ham will know by the middle of next month whether they have a chance to sign the 23-year-old.
He sais: “In its future there is the permanence at Flamengo (in mid-November the meeting with the Inter to buy it) or return to Europe.”
ClaretandHugh says: Schira has developed a very good track record and despite being based in Italy clearly knew more than the German media on Haller’s situation back in the summer. Thus it can be assumed he is pretty well placed to discuss a player at Inter – currently on loan of course. However, although Pellegrini’s interest seems real, the big issue is cash with no Sky money on the way until next summer. As we reported the other day, Pelle is happy with the squad he has but like all managers would love more. However, it would clearly mean – were he to want Barbosa urgently – that players would have to be offloaded and that would disturb the squad with which he is content. Quite who could be cleared out anyway is dubious and with the boss playing one up the second big question over such a deal is whether the Inter striker would be content to arrive in a back-up role to Seb.
I think our squad at the moment is strong enough, no need to upset the balance right now, could be bad for morale
Clubs like Liverpool and Bournemouth who we just played have showed 433 works really well it would allow the team to potentially drop Noble for the second striker having Lanzini, Gabigol and Haller as the front 3 with Anderson. And Yarmo either side of Rice. Lanzini can always drop back if needed to make 442 .
I think if Pelle Can really get the best out of Ajeti we don’t need any other ‘top’ strikers. Our youngster in the u23’s , Scully, is doing very well and Haller looks like a great target man and with Yarmo and Anderson in-form, they are quickly getting onto the rebounds.
Barbosa looks like a great striker but we are still very strong in that position.
Still cannot understand why MP is so against 2 up front. Ajeti seems very much like Hernandez, a box player, and needs to play off the main striker. As we’ve seen in the cup games, he struggles on his own. Against some teams we are crying out for such a system. Haller is living on scraps on his own, his great ability is heading down and holding the ball up for others. Unfortunately the others are quite often not there quickly enough. This isn’t criticism of the players just the system. Big teams have the ability to play both ways. COYI.