West Ham had an official at the match between Vitoria Guimaraes and Benfica on Saturday night, according to Portuguese newspaper O Jogo. Benfica won the match 2-0 and West Ham were accompanied by several other clubs including West Brom, Manchester City, Arsenal, Valencia and Real Sociedad.
There’s no indication who West Ham were looking at, but Eduardo Salvio could be a good hunch. The 26 year old plays in a similar position to Sofiane Feghouli, and with reports in Italy that the Algerian could be off to Serie A, Salvio would be a good replacement for him.
The problem with recruiting any player from Benfica is that the club always extract a good price, and this season especially, players may not want to leave.
Whilst West Ham are trying to avoid a relegation battle, Benfica are six points clear at the top of the league. The Portuguese side are also through to the next Champions League round, where they’ll face Borussia Dortmund.
There’s plenty of talent at Benfica for Slaven Bilic to be interested in, but it would be another hard transfer task for West Ham to take one of the club’s better players.
