West Ham summer target is available – but not for less than £25m
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West Ham have never had a striker score 20 Premier League goals in one season, but they’ll be hoping to change all that next term.
The East Londoners have been linked with FC Koln hotshot Anthony Modeste.
And the former Blackburn Rovers forward has been in sensational form in this season’s Bundesliga, netting 23 goals from just 29 games.
He may have flopped during his half-a-season stay in Lancashire, but the former France U21 ace has scored a whopping 72 goals from just 154 games in the four years since he left Ewood Park.
And that’s across three different clubs too, having done the business for Bastia in Ligue 1, plus Hoffenheim and Koln in Germany.
West Ham have gone through a hoard of strikers in recent years, but right now they can only boast Andy Carroll as an out-and-out forward.
Even on their way to a superb seventh place finish last season, no Hammer scored more than nine times in the league.
So it’s little wonder the Irons are expected to make a top-line striker one of their biggest priorities this summer.
The latest reports claim Koln will entertain offers for their star striker this summer, but only for fees above £25m.
Those reports from German outlet SportBild also cast doubt over whether the Hammers will be feel they can justify spending that amount on a 29-year-old, with Marseille and Nice also linked.
After being forced to sell Dimitri Payet to Marseille in January for less than they were hoping for, the West Ham board will also be targeting someone to replace the mercurial winger.
A big summer is expected at the London Stadium, with speculation still very much rife that Slaven Bilic will depart as manager.
For now, the Hammers will be looking to consolidate their place in the table, where a ninth-place finish is still within reach.
But in-form Everton are the visitors to east London this weekend, and our traders make Ronald Koeman’s men favourites to win at 23/20.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
