West Ham have leapfrogged Newcastle United in the race to sign Leicester City centre-forward Islam Slimani as they eye a stunning late deal, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claim that the 2106 Premier League winners want a permanent deal for Slimani, 29, who they signed 18 months ago for a fee of £30million (source: Guardian).
The Mail report that West Ham lead the chase for the Algeria international and will hold deadline day talks in a bid to push the deal over the finish line.
It is said that the Hammers have already held talks with Slimani’s camp and now hold the “upper hand” as they look to seal his signature.
Slimani has scored five goals in 17 matches this season but has made just two Premier League starts. In total for Leicester, the 55-times Algeria international has netted 13 goals in 46 matches.
OPINION
Slimani has failed to match his Sporting Lisbon scoring exploits – he scored 27 times in the Portugese league in 2015-16 – at Leicester but he has showed enough qualities to demonstrate he could be a fine signing for a Premier League club. At the King Power Stadium, Jamie Vardy remains the premier front man, with Shinji Okazaki as the preferred partner or back-up. Slimani and fellow big-money signing Kelechi Iheanacho have been unable to break the striker cartel in place. But the Algerian has pace, power and an eye for goal. He has the potential to dazzle in the England top flight and would offer such much-needed cutting edge to a West Ham front line that has been deprived due to injury recently of Andy Carroll and which lost Diafra Sakho in a permanent sale to Rennes earlier this week.