Crystal Palace are preparing to hijack a deal for Manchester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho, according to a report in the Mirror.
The newspaper claims that the London club are ready to rival their Premier League counterparts, West Ham following their interest in the £20million-rated forward.
It is said the highly-rated 20-year-old is surplus to requirements at the Etihad Stadium and he is available for sale at the right price.
Nigeria international Iheanacho has come through the ranks at City, but despite a positive start to the recently concluded campaign, he struggled to cement a regular place in Pep Guardiola’s team.
He started off the season by scoring three goals in his first seven Premier League matches, and he added three assists during that period.
However, since then, he started only one more league game for his Spanish coach, who guided City to a top-four finish in his first season in charge.
The report states that West Ham are leading the chase for Iheanacho, ahead of interested parties Palace, Everton and Swansea, but they have not yet convinced him to make a move to the London Stadium.
In an earlier report in The West Ham Way, it was claimed that Hammers talks over Iheanacho had stalled, but that a deal wasn’t dead.
Either way, this attention from Crystal Palace will be an unwanted distraction in their pursuit.
Slaven Bilic’s side need attacking depth – they finished off their Premier League campaign by finishing in the bottom half of the table and scoring only 47 goals from their 38 matches.