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West Ham United have shown desire to bring Sparta Prague protoge Adam Hlozek to the London Stadium this month, Sparta are demanding £20 million for the 18 year old striker, although the initial fee would only be around £14 million with the rest as add ons.
On the one hand it is an extraordinary fee to pay for an 18 year old, but Hammers defacto Czech target agent, Tomas Soucek, has recommended the youngster most highly, rating him as the best young forward available in Europe at this time, an impressive accolade indeed.

It should be remembered that it was on Soucek's advice that David Moyes signed Vladimir Coufal, and we all know how successful that transfer has been. Moyes is renowned for giving youth a chance, IF they are good enough, with Wayne Rooney being a prime example, Moyes gave him his Everton debut in 2002 when Rooney was only 16 years old, Rooney spent two seasons at the Merseyside club, before moving to Manchester United for £25.6 Million in the 2004.

Hlozek has been on Hammers radar for quite a while now, and it is possible that he could be signed in addition to another striker in order to feed him in to the first team gradually, the other striker, again a player who has been closely monitored since last season, is Bournemouth's Josh King, who reminded people of his ability by scoring a brace during Saturday's FA Cup 3rd round game.

A move for Hlozek would also depend on 'sympathetic' financial terms being agreed with regards to the 'tranche' payments for what is potentially a very exciting signing, whether Sparta will be prepared to go along with Hammers' never never deal is up for debate.

In the short time between writing our first striker article and this, there have been even more developments, news of which we shall bring shortly.- Ed

Among the horse riding fraternity there is a golden rule, if you fall off your horse, the first thing you do after having dusted yourself off is to get straight back on again, thus wiping out any fear you have of remounting while teaching the horse who is boss once and for all.

Having had an extremely poor 'Gallic' experience with 'Le lazy Sulk', AKA Sebastien Haller and prior to him 'Le Snake' AKA Dimitri Payet, the Hammers hierarchy will be more than wary of dipping their toes back in to the French market for players, however their previous recruitment was done without current manager David Moyes who has a much more hands on approach to transfers, the signings of Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal, Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma testify to that.

David Moyes has convinced the board that there are still good hard working young players available from acrosss the channel, and to that purpose he is actively pursuing a deal to bring 24 year old Boulaye Dia to the London Stadium from Stade Reims. Dia's agent, Frederic Guerra, suggested that West Ham have already made an approach to sign his client for a fee of around £10n Million rising to £14 Million.

The stumbling block for any deal involving the electric paced striker, who is in the final 18 months of his contract, is that club Reimes want to keep him, and they are able to offer Champions League football. The plusn points are that West Ham, despite being the Barclays Premier League's poorest members do have the funds to finance the deal, following the departure of Haller to Ajax for a £25 Million loss, and will move swiftly to get the deal over the line, possibly as soon as this evening .

Although Moyes currently has only the one established striker at his disposal, Michail Antonio with his temperamental hamstrings, Moyes will already have established his 'hit list' of potential recruits, he will also be aware of some of the U-23 and youth players who could feature in the FA Cup 3rd televised fixture against Stockport on Monday evening.

Josh King has been the bookies favourite to join West Ham due to the fact that his contract with Bournemouth expires in June, but it appears Moyes would prefer the more athletic Dia over the more ponderous King, that said they both look like greyhounds compared with the player they are being lined up to replace.

A front man who can actually run who isn't named Antonio? That'll be the Dia!- Ed

Half Price Horror Sale! Pellegrini Signed Us For Over £100 Million, We Are Worth Less Than Half Now
Some might say losing £25 Million in order to sell your record signing is atrocious business, which it is, whereas others might say that West Ham were extremely fortunate in achieving even £20 Million for misfit striker Sebastien Haller. It should be remembered that prior to his 2019 arrival at the club, Haller was NOT Manuel Pellegrini's first choice as striker, Maxi Gomez was the player sought by the Chilean ex-manager of West Ham but a deal could not be put together.

The naivety of the Hammers board was exposed and exploited by the wily Pellegrini who recognised the apparent desire to spend big in order to justify the move from the much revered Boleyn Ground to the White Elephant that is the as yet still unbranded London Stadium.

There must be several despot states that would love to be able to relieve people of their funds with the efficiency of the 'Pellegrinophile'! £45 Million for Seb Haller, £36 Million for Felipe Anderson and £22 Million for Issa Diop represents an outlay of over £100 Million, where did it all go wrong?

Haller has joined Ajax, where he will probably bang goals in for fun, Anderson is bench warming while on an unsuccessful loan at Porto, and Diop's form has dropped off the cliff to such an extent that he finds himself behind Watford's Craig Dawson in the starting line up!

So there we have it, for an outlay of £103 Million the club has now lost £25 Million on Haller, while Anderson's value has halved meaning an £18 Million loss, Diop has not gone down in value, but he certainly hasn't gone up, despite being young and previously superb at the back.

Of course West Ham do not have the monopoly for signing over priced heavy loss making players, that honour is shared jointly by London rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, particularly the latter. The signings of Anderson, Diop and Haller were a classic example of a narcissistic manager who was obsessed with his 'big club mentality' ethos, but was actually in complete denial, the result was a totally imbalanced squad which had gaping holes in it that needed addressing but they weren't.

The grim reality is West Ham could not afford to lose £50 Million before the Covid-19 epidemic, let alone now, however there is hope that David Moyes if given the proceeds of the Haller sales might just be able to work his magic in the transfer market, with the Czech Republic being his primary 'honey hole'.

If used wisely, the Ajax money can fund the arrival of a much needed 'proper striker' who doesn't fall on his backside at the slightest of touches, a left back and an additional midfielder as cover for Rice and Soucek. It is rather ironic that the only signing Pellegrini and his director of football Mario Husillos made was that of Pablo Fornals, who was the least 'fancied' of the influx of players but has turned out to be the best, and the only one that David Moyes appears to trust.

A European place is tantalisingly close for the Irons, this season more than ever, but having been 'torched' by Pellegrini, the Hammers hierarchy will be loathe to go down that road again, however if they don't back Moyes they may well regret not taking the genuine opportunity, one that they must have dreamt of in the past, of finally reaching the 'next level', a promise they made in order to justify the move from the 'hallowed' ground that was the Boleyn. - Ed.