In the last couple of days we’ve written about the Hammers interest in bringing a new striker to London Stadium,. One the one hand, West Ham United’s hierarchy tell the club via the ‘high ranking source’ that ‘we’re skint’ whilst on the other, reports from the UK and now from Spain tell a different story. With Niclas Fullkrug still injured and unarguably West Ham’s only striker come the end of the season, the Irons need to look ahead and do some ‘succession planning’.
Mikhail Antonio and Danny Ings both exit – at the latest – next summer as their contracts will expire. News out of the club in September, remember, was that there was no room for another salary on the books ‘unless someone leaves’.
So, looking at the 200k plus per week which Ings and Antonio earn, there will be scope for adding to the squad next Summer. But as we all suspect, January will see Antonio offered to the market if only to free up his wages to bring a new striker in early.
At the prices discussed, Hugo Duro from Valencia is a brilliant prospect. Fichajes.net reports that his club have now publicly set the price to prise him away from La Liga: ‘Valencia FC is in a situation where two Premier League clubs, West Ham and Aston Villa, have shown a clear interest in getting the services of Hugo Duro.’ The report continues :“Valencia has made it clear that the minimum price to negotiate the departure of Duro is 20 million euros.”
Duro, at 24, and at €20 million (about £17 million) is both capable and attainable – and the right age profile for a change. The report from 3rd October claims:“the negotiations are at a standstill, waiting for one of the interested parties to decide to increase their offer or for Valencia to be willing to reduce their claims[asking price].”
This interest won’t be progressing until the window opens in January with West Ham deciding whether or not to line-up a deal to offload ‘someone’ to free up the wages. Priced at ‘half a Duran’, Hugo Duro need not be another ‘one who got away’.