Turkish side Fenerbahçe are eyeing up a move for West Ham United forward Andriy Yarmolenko in the January transfer window.
That’s according to Fotomaç, who say the Turkish Süper Lig side are looking to ‘detonate the main’ bomb in an effort to strengthen their forward line.
The newspaper explains that the club ‘left its mark’ on the summer window but their new sports director Emre Belözoğlu wants to go further.
He wants to strengthen his side’s forward line and find a replacement for Enner Valencia and has already started ‘preliminary studies’ of names to target.
The player that has ‘attracted the most attention’ from Emre is Yarmolenko, and the Turkish giants have already begun to explore the ‘conditions’ to secure a deal.
It’s claimed that Fenerbahçe are looking at ‘hiring’ the 31-year-old on an ‘intermediate transfer’ which makes it sound like they are eyeing up a loan deal as opposed to a permanent transfer.
It’s also explained that Emre believes that the Ukrainian can ‘quickly adapt’ to life in Turkey, which is an ‘important advantage’ compared to other potential targets.
Whether the player is interested in the move isn’t mentioned, nor is whether West Ham would let him go, just that Fenerbahçe are exploring a transfer and the forward is seemingly at the top of their list.
On the face of it, it’s hard to see West Ham being completely against a move given Yarmolenko is yet to start a game in the Premier League and his only 90 minutes have come in the EFL Cup.
It is easy to imagine they’d prefer a permanent deal rather than a loan one, though as that would at least give David Moyes extra funds to reinvest in his squad.
That means there may be some work on to make this deal happen, with this a rumour to keep an eye on moving forward.
