West Ham are getting closer to signing Basel striker Albian Ajeti ahead of Thursday’s transfer deadline with significant progress made overnight.
Basel plays in the Champions League against Lask tonight in the first leg of the third qualifying round tomorrow night but Ajeti is currently injured and has missed the last two games for Basel is was unlikely to start anyway.
There is always the chance of course that he is being ‘nursed’ ahead of a move!
The striker is understood to be keen on a move to the Premier League and is pushing for a move to West Ham rather than the Championship with West Brom where Slaven Bilic also chasing him.
The Hammers are understood to have increased their initial offer and are cautiously optimistic that they could get a deal over the line later today.
We may know until Thursday whether we have been successful with a medical needed should a financial deal be agreed with Basel.
West Ham have no squad places available for non-home grown players so Xande Silva would need to be excluded for 22-year-old Ajeti to be fitted into the first-team squad.
What happens to squad if hopefully we sell Hernandez by 2/9/18 when Spanish window closes Can we add a player to our squad then?
No, have to wait until January in that case so lets hope we keep Chicha until then
Silva is out until October and imho is probably a player that could do with a season or two of league football before he is ready, for the prem, definitely one for the future.
Corrected
Think this could be a great signing. Young striker with an eye for goal, who will have reduced pressure as he’ll be sat behind Haller & maybe Hernandez. Plenty of sub appearances and chances in the cups to get experience.
Fingers crossed he doesn’t turn into another Calleri …
Having watched the YouTube of him last season, looks like a clinical finisher with both feet and his head, good movement definitely a box player, he also operates mostly within the width of the goal posts which Alan Shearer and Lineker said is the mark of a goal scorer, fingers crossed he is another 15 -20 goal scorer COYI !!!
This is shaping up to being a good window. Adding quality where needed to the squad to augment the likes of Felipe, Diop, etc who are now bedded in from last summer. We’ve also got rid of a lot of dead wood and slimmed down the salary budget.
There is still that defence to sort out, but that has to be a question of organisation rather than new players. To be honest I was surprised Pellegrini was not able to do that last season given his reputation. The fact that it is still looking leaky in pre season is a concern, although assuming we get Ajeti I would say it looks quite a well balanced squad. Unless you are Man C you can’t have everything you want. Laughed until I cried over Guardiola whining that they ‘could not afford’ Harry Maguire. Perhaps it was meant to be a joke. Ha ha.
If we get this done and can get better cover for Dec even if it’s a loan, I think we will have had a very good window.