As appears to be the case every single transfer window, West Ham are looking at strikers.
It seems to be a “favourite” pastime of theirs, as it’s an area of the pitch they can never seem to get right, no matter how much money they spend.
The expensive signing of Sébastien Haller never worked out, with the Ivory Coast international now at Ajax after being sold, and the Hammers have the task of replacing him.
Their efforts, so far, haven’t gone all that well, with the likes of Luka Jović reportedly turning them down and their top target, Youssef En-Nesyri, seemingly set to stay in Sevilla.
One of the other names looked at was Boulaye Dia in France, who is having a great season with Stade de Reims.
A bid was made to the Ligue 1 club, but they rejected it since it fell short of their €15m asking price.
This is corroborated by France Football on Monday, who explain West Ham, while liking Dia’s profile, feel the desired fee is ‘a bit too high for a rather inexperienced player’.
That doesn’t mean they’ve given up on him, however, since ‘they will continue to follow him’.
The problem here is that Dia has attracted a lot of attention from elsewhere, with the French magazine revealing Milan, Napoli and Torino in Serie A are also interested, either for January or the summer.
Despite all this attention, leaving for the sake of doing so isn’t part of his plans, and it’s stated those close to him have suggested it might be best to finish the season with Reims before looking at greener pastures.
Added experience will certainly help, and perhaps that will force West Ham, if he continues to score goals like he has done so far this season, to raise their offer down the line.
