- 2 hours ago
West Ham to decide between three English strikers for summer transfer
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 19 May 2021 15:43 BST
- 3 min read
West Ham successfully signed Jesse Lingard on loan from Manchester United in the January transfer window, but ultimately failed in their pursuit of another striker to provide competition for Michail Antonio.
At the beginning of that window, the Hammers sold Sebastien Haller to Ajax and so left themselves short up top, with Antonio, a converted winger, their only real option for the centre-forward role.
They were unsuccessful in bids for Youssef En-Nesyri and Hwang Hee-chan, while an enquiry for Danny Ings was quickly thrown out by Southampton.
Though Lingard will take on some of the goalscoring burden between now and the end of the season, West Ham still need to bring in at least one striker this summer, and have identified three Englishman as targets.
Who will West Ham sign this summer?
At the weekend, Tammy Abraham was left out of Chelsea’s squad for the Premier League clash against Manchester United, with manager Thomas Tuchel confirming afterwards that the England striker was not injured.
It would appear, therefore, that Tuchel doesn’t fully trust Abraham to be his leading central striker moving forward, which will likely lead to another spending spree this summer, with a player for that role specifically the priority.
He does, however, hold a pretty decent goalscoring record over the past couple of years and scored 15 in the Premier League last season, so still enjoys a solid reputation within the division, which is why West Ham are interested.
After Eddie Nketiah only scored three goals in the Championship on loan at Leeds last season, he returned to Arsenal having not really enjoyed a positive chapter in his development.
Between the 2019/20 and 2020/21 season he has started just 10 games for the Gunners in the league, scoring two goals and recording one assist in that time.
There was a period earlier in the season when it seemed Mikel Arteta was going to trust him with more minutes, but he is ultimately third choice for the centre-forward role behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal need to decide what they want to do with the 21-year-old, and it could be a sale to West Ham if the money is right.
Ivan Toney was on the cusp on joining Celtic in the summer of 2020, only for the Hoops to pull the deal at the eleventh hour to sign Albian Ajeti from West Ham instead.
Toney would subsequently make a mockery of this decision from Celtic as he has gone on to star for Brentford in the Championship following his transfer from Peterborough.
He has played 33 times in the second tier in 2020/21, and scored a brilliant 24 goals, helping the Bees to second in the league behind runaway leaders Norwich.
The potential transfer of Toney from Brentford to West Ham may just depend on whether the former earns promotion this season, as if they do it will significantly increase the asking price for their star striker.
Toney, too, may want a crack at the Premier League with the team that took him out of League One.
