Speaking on the latest episode of the West Ham Way podcast, ExWHUemployee revealed an intriguing transfer update regarding the club’s plans for the summer.
David Moyes has guided the Hammers to within two points of fourth-placed Chelsea with just nine games left to play of the current campaign.
The London Stadium outfit have defied expectations this season as they continue to push for continental football, and Moyes has managed this without having an abundance of options at his disposal.
Only four Premier League sides have used fewer players than the capital club in 2020/21, but ExWHUemployee has disclosed one way in which the hierarchy are planning to bolster their ranks in the upcoming window.
He said: “In terms of transfers, obviously, we’ve got targets already that we’re kind of provisionally drawing up, and there’s quite a few interesting ones that are out of contract in the summer, which we know, being free, will probably tempt the owners.
“So, one’s [Moussa] Marega, who’s a forward that we’ve been linked with repeatedly, I think he’s at Porto at the moment, but he’s out of contract. Another one is [Nikola] Maksimovic, who’s a centre-back for Napoli. I think we were linked with him heavily in the summer.
“And then there’s [Vincent] Aboubakar, who’s another forward, I think he might be playing in Turkey at the moment, but he also played in Portugal, was someone we looked at, and then there’s [John] Lundstram of Sheffield United.
“Now, I don’t know if interest in him has cooled recently, because there wasn’t much efforts to sign him, I don’t think, in January, so I don’t know if we’ve cooled our interest, but there’s interest in those four – all previous targets who are out of contracts in the summer.”
TIF Thoughts on West Ham’s transfer targets…
Even if West Ham fail to qualify for the Champions League or Europa League, Moyes is arguably still going to need to add to his squad ahead of next season, given how light they are on numbers.
Michail Antonio is the only recognised striker in the first-team setup, and the former Manchester United boss has been forced to name two goalkeepers on the substitutes’ bench to make up the numbers in recent weeks.
Therefore, signing one or two free agents to boost numbers and free up some cash to spend on other more important areas could be a sensible strategy for the Hammers over the summer.