West Ham United insider @ExWHUemployee has claimed that the Hammers may be priced out of a move to sign Red Bull Salzburg striker Patson Daka.
During the summer transfer window, the Irons sunk £23.94m on incoming players as they signed two permanently and two on loan (per Transfermarkt).
However, none of the four players that arrived at the London Stadium were strikers – with them being a centre-back, a left-back, a midfielder and a left-winger.
Following Sebastian Haller’s move to Ajax last week (per BBC), David Moyes has been left with Michail Antonio as his only natural striker.
In the latest episode of The West Ham Way Podcast, @ExWHUemployee discussed several forwards that West Ham are eyeing a move for and made a claim about Daka.
He said: “Now, there’s a guy called Patson Daka, the interesting thing about him, he plays in the Austrian league and he’s [Zambian].
“He is scoring really well in the Austrian league – it is the Austrian league, but he looks like he’s got a lot of quality. The problem with him is that he’s a bit more expensive.
“I think his club are looking at around €25m, and I’m not sure whether we want to pay that and whether we believe that would not represent a big gamble because obviously, he’s not played at [a] top level.
“The key thing to this deal is that his agent is Freddie Kanoute. Now, obviously, he is an ex-West Ham player and speaks very highly of his time at West Ham.
“He holds the cards in that deal but, at the moment, I don’t think we’ll sign two [strikers]. I mean, that would be heavenly for West Ham, but I really can’t see that happening.”
TIF Thoughts on what @ExWHUemployee had to say about Patson Daka…
As can be seen in what the in-the-know podcaster had to say, he believes that West Ham are interested in Daka, however, they may be priced out of a move for him.
Should West Ham stump up the fee to sign Patson Daka?
No, he's not good enough
Yes, he's a class player
So far this season, Daka has been in impressive form for RB Salzburg as he has bagged 15 goals and five assists over 17 appearances in all competitions for his Austrian club (per Transfermarkt).
However, the 22-year-old Zambian has a market value of £18m, so, it would seem that RB Salzburg are after a fee that would be over what he is worth.
Based on his stats this season alone, though, the striker would appear to be an impressive young talent.