West Ham United have suddenly burst into life in the transfer window but is excitement over a potential deal premature?
The Hammers have signed Pablo Zabaleta and Joe Hart from Manchester City so far this summer and are reportedly on the verge of sealing deals for Stoke City’s Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez.
Slaven Bilic said earlier this summer he was targeting quality of quantity and wanted four “game-changer” signings.
But supporters’ excitement went into overdrive this week after reports West Ham had agreed a club record fee of around £27.5m – potentially rising to more than £30m – for Lazio striker Keita Balde Diao.
Lazio’s Balde Diao Keita reacts
Reports from Goal in Italy claim a deal between the Hammers and Lazio has been agreed and the decision now rests with the 22-year-old, who scored 16 goals as one of the surprise packages of Serie A last season.
According to the report, West Ham have come to an agreement with Lazio president Claudio Lotito with just some finer details over the way the transfer payment is structured to be ironed out.
But has Hammers co-owner David Sullivan ruled out any hope of that particular deal with his latest comments on the club’s official website?
Speaking after securing the signature of Hart on a season-long loan, Sullivan said the focus was solely on recruiting two attacking players – with Arnautovic and Hernandez both reported to be close to arriving.
“We are concentrating solely now on signing two attackers, then we will be satisfied,” Sullivan told whufc.com.
“The Board and the management know we need a couple of players who will help us to score more goals next season, so that is what we will be concentrating on over the coming days and weeks.”
West Ham co owner David Sullivan
Of course Keita Balde could be one of those attacking players, but then that would be instead of either Arnautovic or Hernandez.
Either way West Ham finally seem to be going in the right direction regarding transfers and optimism is building among supporters.
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