Tim Steidten is ready to launch his big West Ham back-up plan and will look to take advantage of the collapse of an Everton deal.
Julen Lopetegui is bearing the brunt of the criticism at West Ham right now.
But make no mistake technical director Tim Steidten is under pressure too.
West Ham welcome Premier League rivals Everton to the London Stadium next weekend.
There are already claims the Hammers must beat Everton or Lopetegui could face the sack.
Especially given there is a two-week international break after West Ham play the Toffees.
One of the big issues at West Ham is the fact Steidten got the striker decision badly wrong in the summer.
After being linked with the likes of Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin and a host of others, West Ham settled on Jhon Duran as their prime target.
A deal looked like it might be done but Steidten elected to spread his budget across more signings.
The German decided to save £20m by bringing in 31-year-old injury-prone forward Niclas Fullkrug instead.
The move has been an unmitigated disaster so far.
Steidten turns to Jesus with to save West Ham’s season
After three brief cameo appearances as a sub, Fullkrug has been out for eight games with injury.
That will become nine next weekend as the Germany international will miss West Ham’s crunch game with Everton too.
Talk has abound that he may even be out until the new year by the time he starts properly training again.
With former Everton target Michail Antonio and Danny Ings West Ham’s only back-ups the situation is dire up front for Lopetegui.
A 3-0 defeat to Forest saw neither Antonio or Ings start as the manager played a false nine.
That only served to further highlight the problem – and pile the pressure on the technical director’s summer business.
Now Steidten has turned to Jesus with a sensational plan to save West Ham’s season after an Everton deal collapse.
Paqueta swap on cards with billionaire after Everton collapse
That’s according to journalist Alan Nixon.
Lucas Paqueta played in the false nine at Forest and turned in yet another woeful performance.
Hammers News gave Paqueta a 3/10 score for his lacklustre display.
Lazy, disinterested and offering nothing on the ball or off it, Paqueta has become a big problem for the Hammers.
Particularly since they were denied the chance to offload him as a result of the FA case against him for alleged spot-fixing.
West Ham have stood by Paqueta throughout. But his performances have not expressed much gratitude.
In the summer there were reports Paqueta wanted to return home to Brazil.
But he ended up staying with the Hammers.
Now Steidten has activated a plan which could see Paqueta offloaded and a new striker brought in with no money exchanging hands until a later date.
In an exclusive on Nixon’s Patreon site, The Sun journalist claims ‘West Ham want Botafogo’s brilliant Brazilian striker Igor Jesus in a surprise £30 million raid’.
The move would essentially be paid for by Paqueta returning to his homeland as part of the deal.
West Ham can solve two big problems in one hit
And it’s only possible as a result of billionaire John Textor’s failed bid to buy Everton.
According to Nixon, Textor – who owns Botafogo and Lyon – was going to bring 23-year-old Jesus to Everton had his takeover been successful
It wasn’t. And now West Ham want to try and play on the fact Textor loves Paqueta and wants to bring him to Botafogo.
Jesus only joined Botafogo earlier this year after a spell in Saudi Arabia.
He is flying and has just made the Brazil senior squad for the first time.
Nixon claims West Ham could move for Jesus in January if they can come to some sort of arrangement with Textor over how the Paqueta deal might work around the case against him, which is due to be settled in March.
It could be that West Ham take Jesus on loan with an obligation or option to buy at a set price.
That would give West Ham time to raise funds through sales and would come out of next summer’s transfer budget.
Shipping Paqueta out would solve two problems in one move for West Ham.
That deal would likely have to be arranged in such a way that it is a loan which becomes permanent if Paqueta is cleared.
Related Posts
