A La Carte Hammers To Have Gallic Front Line

Having released so many players during their 'cull' at West Ham, Manuel Pellegrini and Mario Husillos set about recruiting players to take the club to that elusive 'next' level. The signings of Pablo Fornals and Sebastian Haller for a combined £69 Million showed real intent, unfortunately their purchase was a real transfer budget buster! It was already common knowledge that Hammers had a measly £35 Million net in the kitty so player sales and loans were going to be the only options.

Sending the incredible Sulk off to take away land released a further £24 Million and selling Edmilison Fernandez a further £10 Million, about another £5 Million became available due to the sales of Lucas Perez and Sam Byram leaving a balance of about £4 Million, hardly a penny in today's market. Large payments were due for the Felipe Anderson deal as well as the Yarmolenko deal, this is how teams not at the top table make ends meet, by having to pay for their players on H.P.

Hammers showed more than a little interest in Lorient's Alexis Claude-Maurice at the beginning of the transfer window, however Arsenal came sniffing and West Ham seemed content to pass on getting involved in a bidding war with their London rivals for the services of the 25 year old late developing striker. Now as news of a potential move to Spain for Javier Hernandez is looming, the need for an additional striker or two has become more acute and it seems the Irons' hierarchy have decided to pull the trigger on a permanent deal for Claude-Maurice.

The president of Lorient, the rather fiery Loic Fery, has broken the silence on Claude-Maurice’s future in an interview with French media and has confirmed the interest of two English clubs, believed to be West Ham and Arsenal as well as a club in France and one in Germany. Fery confirmed Lorient remain in discussions with two of the four clubs by saying “The club told him (Claude-Maurice) that he could leave this summer if everyone was satisfied, Alexis will have the choice between continuing to progress here or to go to clubs who have an agreement with FC Lorient, we don’t have any agreements at the moment, we have received four offers. One offer from Germany which is six weeks old, well under the value of the player, two offers are from England including one that was not a permanent transfer, and one offer from France. We are still in discussions with two of these four clubs and there are as well other teams, the fact that multiple clubs are after him shows that he is a player of great quality, with a very big potential.”

Hearing that one of the London clubs wanted a loan deal, viewers will assume that West Ham were the potential loanees, but Arsenal are 'cash strapped' as well, their boss Unai Emery is reportedly working on a restricted budget this summer as is clear to see by the pain staking progress of their attempts to complete their Dani Ceballos loan deal. A Hammers front line led by Haller with Claude-Maurice as either back up striker in Pelle's preferred one up front line up or possibly as one of a pair, would cause a lot of problems for Barclays Premier League defenders and have Hammers licking their lips in anticipation of seeing a greatly improved forward line.

Two Frogs up front? Sacre bleue c'est maginifique - Ed