West Ham United remain in talks regarding a deal to bring Hugo Ekitike to the London Stadium prior to transfer deadline day.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to a claim made by Dharmesh Sheth, with the Sky Sports journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that David Moyes’ side are in continued negotiations with Stade Reims regarding a deal for the centre-forward.
Previous reports revealed that Newcastle United are also interested in a move for the 19-year-old this month, however, after the Magpies submitted an offer totalling €35m (£29m) for the France U21 international – which is believed to have included a bonus for winning the Champions League – the Reims president, Jean-Pierre Caillot, stated that the French side would require a more concrete offer for him to accept a bid.
Speaking about the interest in Ekitike, Caillot said: “[Newcastle] offered us €35m (£29m) in total but with many bonuses, some of which were almost impossible to achieve – like, for example, winning the Champions League. We want €30m (£25m) fixed plus €10m (£8.5m) in realisable bonuses.”
Finally what West Ham need
With West Ham having been operating with Michail Antonio as their only option at centre-forward since the sale of Sebastien Haller a year ago this month, the addition of a second striker to Moyes’ first-team squad has been something of a priority for the 58-year-old manager this January.
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However, with around 36 hours remaining of the winter market, the Hammers are yet to welcome any fresh faces to the London Stadium this month, be that up front or elsewhere.
As such, considering the club’s desperate need for attacking reinforcements, in addition to the abundance of potential Ekitike is quite clearly in possession of, it would appear an extremely wise move for the Irons to launch a late offer for the 19-year-old sensation.
Indeed, over his 18 Ligue 1 appearances so far this season, the £5.4m-rated striker has been in remarkable form for Reims, having already bagged eight goals, provided three assists and created two big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.3 shots and making 0.7 key passes per game.
These returns have seen the player who has been compared to Kylian Mbappe average an impressive SofaScore match rating of 6.88, ranking him as his club’s 11th-best player in the top flight of French football.
So, with an extremely limited amount of time remaining in the January transfer window, Moyes and the West Ham board simply must stump up the £33.5m required to get a deal over the line for Ekitike prior to Monday’s deadline – as the 19-year-old would appear to be exactly what the Hammers need.
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