West Ham United’s chances of signing VfB Stuttgart star Serhou Guirassy may have been handed a boost, as it appears the German side are already planning for life without him.
Sky Sport Germany cover the player today and Stuttgart’s already developing plans to find a replacement for him should he leave in January.
Guirassy is one of the rising names in European football after a superb start to the season that’s seen him bag 18 goals and two assists in 15 games in all competitions so far.
That’s seen him linked with a number of clubs, most of whom see him as a potential bargain thanks to a well-publicised €17.5m release clause in his current contract.
West Ham are one of those clubs to have been credited with an interest and a report earlier this month made it clear their interest was concrete and only building ahead of January.
Since then, Stuttgart have been insistent that they are doing everything they can to keep the striker but Sky report that in reality, they are making moves behind the scenes to source his replacement.
According to their information, the club currently have two candidates in mind to replace their star man. One of them is Simon Banza from SC Braga and the other is Torino’s Antonio Sanabria.
Both of these are seen as cheaper than Guirassy, in terms of the fees to get them and his wages, indicating that the Swabians are eyeing up a potential money-making exercise with the departure of Guirassy.
The implication is that they are secretly resigned to losing Guirassy in the coming weeks, which could mean West Ham’s chances of getting him may have been handed a boost.
Whether he ends up at the London Stadium or elsewhere, though, remains to be seen.
