Following last night’s win at Norwich the press is buzzing with new West Ham targets today. talkSPORT? suggest that we will look to sign defender Douglas from Dynamo Moscow. A Brazilian by birth, he allegedly turned us down in 2013 to move to Russia but he has never left our radar. I’m not so sure this one has any substance. I think nearly all of us would agree that we seem to be covered at Centre Half, if not overrun in this area, unless one of Tomkins/Reid/Collins is set to leave. There would be riots if we signed another defender instead of trying for a striker.
Talking of strikers and The Wharf? claim we are interested in Senegal striker Moussa Sow, currently of Fenerbache. The striker would be known to Bilic from his time in Turkey and would certainly be welcomed by Sakho & Kouyate whom he has played with for Senegal. He has a great scoring record wherever he has been and for the mooted fee of £12million its a risk worth taking in my eyes. At 29 years old he isn’t getting any younger but he would still add something to our front line that we have lacked for a long time, a genuine goalscorer.
Apparently Lassana Diarra is set to reject West Ham in favour of a move to Marseille. The midfielder has been training with West Ham for about the last year in order to keep fit and whilst he has been sorting out his release from his previous club. The Brentwood Gazette suggest they are prepared to offer him a 4 year deal whilst it has been reported West Ham would offer only a 1 year deal with the option of a second season. Seems a bit cheeky that Diarra has opted to do this considering our hospitality, if true, but I don’t see that it will disrupt our plans all that much as I think he would have only been a back up option to the likes of Kouyate and Noble.
The same source claim we have missed out on German wonderkid Thilo Kehrer to Inter Milan. Another player that I know very little about so perhaps some of our German readers will be able to enlighten us? He is a teenage centre back tipped for big things but unfortunately not with West Ham it would appear.
And finally, as Alex Song is out recovering from his operation West Ham are said to have turned their attention to Caen’s midfielder N’Golo Kante. The 24 year old plays the holding role in midfield and would be almost a like for like replacement positional wise but it remains to be seen whether he has the star quality of Alex Song (think pre-christmas!!) With the fact we are being linked to a few holding midfielders perhaps Bilic isn’t comfortable with having just Kouyate and Noble for this role, although with the recent performances of Oxford and Poyet he may feel they have the ability to step up this season.