The Fiorentina hitman is no longer courted by Europe’s biggest clubs – even Tottenham and West Ham’s interest has cooled despite their striker problems.
Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United know all too well how an injured striker can shatter your ambitions.
As it stands, Spurs are just seven points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea but, if Harry Kane (above) had not missed four games with an ankle ligament injury earlier in the season, perhaps the title race would have been a little more thrilling.
As for West Ham, Andy Carroll is often unstoppable when fit. Unfortunately, that is nowhere near as frequent as they’d like.
Therefore, it would make sense for the London rivals to enter the market for another striker in the summer. And, as demonstrated by their respective links with Besiktas forward Cenk Tosun, according to Turkish Football, that is exactly the case.
Yet, you wonder whether the time has passed for Khouma Babacar to earn a move to the Premier League. According to Tuttomercatoweb, both Spurs and West Ham were interested in the Fiorentina striker all the way back in January 2016 but, since then, time has not been kind to the powerful striker.
Considered one of Europe’s brightest forward talents just two years ago, Babacar is now 24-years-old and his career appears to have stalled. Not helped by the arrival of the prolific Nikola Kalinic, the Senegalese has started only 19 Serie A games in the last two seasons.
And although a tally of eleven goals in that time suggests that he uses his time on the pitch efficiently, coupled with the notion that Spurs and West Ham need back-up options, the fact that Babacar has been unable to force his way into the starting XI denotes an inability to live up to that initial promise.
He headed home the winner in Fiorentina’s 1-0 victory against Bologna on Sunday, taking his tally to an impressive six in 14.
Yet, while he continues to find first-team chances hard to come by at the side ranked eighth in Serie A, it’s unlikely he will be subject to any renewed interest from Spurs or West Ham.
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