Way back last summer when Lopetegui was still in his honeymoon period and West Ham fans were full of optimism – briefly – Tim Steidten was racking up the air miles with Brazilian away days in search of West Ham’s next dream signing. Sadly the Guilherme transfer, which was the only tangible result at the time, proved to be more a multi-million minnow instead of a prize catch.
However if the current reports are to be believed then last summer’s work many not be in vain: Graham Potter had exactly zero goal threat to put on the pitch last weekend. A decent mobile striker in the squad would be manna from heaven in the January window and a massive Danny Ings upgrade.
Claret and Hugh’s article as far back as November suggested all was not lost with striker Yuri Alberto. West Ham have history with Corinthians and the Brazilian golden boot winner: An offer of £14 million was rejected in 2023 for the young Alberto. Whilst this would still be a tricky transfer owing to his shared ownership between Zenit St Petersburg and Corinthians, compared with Hammers’ claimed £57 million on the table for Jhon Duran – the £20 million now reported (caughtoffside.com and others) as being on the table for Alberto’s signature would make the striker an excellent buy.
In any case, £20 million seems way more credible in view of West Ham’s financial situation and the reticence of the board to part with money.
The relief at actually bringing a new frontman into West Ham before the window closes would soon outweigh any ‘it’s not Duran’ negativity and give the new head coach some attacking options for the second half of the season and beyond: Alberto could then have a decent run at proving to the West Ham faithful that instead of being a poor second choice he’d actually be a pretty decent, lively and potent threat and a welcome addition to the squad.
Nobody seems to mention Delap….hes got West Ham written all over him, reminds me of Deano….how much to tempt ipswich
Absolute agree. He has the potential to be our main man for the next 8 years
All I keep reading about is links to players that are all much the same as we already have.
Offer 60m now and they can keep him until they are relegated
It’s a no brainer to go get Delap for £40m-£50m. But we will no doubt squander far more trying £20m for someone on the cheap , from some land far away, who will be ill suited to the Prem.
I’d rather few but better quality signings, instead of many random punts.
Think there will be additions this window as doing nothing I’m sure will be totally unacceptable to Potter, and sure this was discussed when he signed contract. We keep talking about Bowen and Summerville coming back. Will obviously help, but we never scored goals with a fully fit squad !
Centre back, midfielder with legs and a striker must this window, and then major surgery in the Summer.
We can’t afford to wait till the summer we failed to get a single shot at goal at home to Crystal Palace . Should we fail to bring in a good striker and a top midfielder we will struggle for the rest of the season and will be battling against the threat of relegation. If we can bid £57million for Duran then the money must be there to strengthen our midfield and striker positions COYI
I’ve said this before but I do not believe that there is money to be spent on any forward ,midfielder,or centre back,we will have to wait for the injured to come back and then during the summer negotiate the best deal we can for Kudus and we’ll use that money