West Ham and Wolves have held talks with the agent of West Brom striker Salomon Rondon after his impressive season on loan at Newcastle United, according to journalist Mark Douglas.
The Chronicle reporter claims in a live question and answer on the newspaper’s blog (02/06, 19:31) that the future of the Venezuelan international, who has 72 caps for his country under his belt, is currently up in the air and that talks have been taking place with his representative.
He scored 11 goals in the top flight for Newcastle, who want him to remain on Tyneside, but having had his contract extended by Championship side West Brom, other Premier League sides are said to be sniffing around.
Opinion
Rondon was always going to be a man in demand after hitting double digits with the Magpies and Rafael Benitez’s side might well be regretting not snapping him up on a permanent deal. Now it appears as though there are plenty of suitors in for his capture and while he might have enjoyed his time at St James’ Park, are they really going to be the most tempting option? Wolves can offer European football in the form of the Europa League qualifiers, which they will be quietly confident of progressing through, while West Ham are building an exciting line up in east London. Newcastle’s only hope of keeping him on board is to offer him a regular spot in the starting XI – something not guaranteed at the other two – as well as a hefty contract. He certainly looks to be worth the money but the Magpies are not big spenders. This could be a transfer wrangle that goes on all summer and whoever does get their hands on him will have a powerful player leading their line.