Reported West Ham United and Wolves target Lassina Traore will stay at Ajax after the Eredivisie leaders sold Klaas-Jan Huntelaar instead, sporting director Marc Overmars told the club’s website.
After the club-record, £20 million signing of Sebastien Haller, it always felt likely that one of the other strikers at Erik Ten Hag’s disposal would be leaving the Johan Cruyff Arena before the end of the month.
De Telegraaf reported that 20-year-old powerhouse Traore was a target for not only Wolverhampton Wanderers, but also Haller’s old employers after a breakthrough campaign in the Netherlands.
An old-school ox of a centre-forward, Troare has produced eight assists and eight goals in 2020/21 – five of those strikes coming in the record-breaking 13-0 thumping of VVV Venlo.
After Ajax opted to let Huntelaar go instead – with the 37-year-old returning to Schalke for a second spell at the crisis-hit Bundesliga strugglers – Traore will be going nowhere over the next two weeks.
“It was Klaas Jan’s wish to help protect Schalke from relegation from the Bundesliga in the last four months of his career,” Overmars said of Huntelaar, who will hang up his boots in the summer.
“We thought it was important to him to allow this. (We will) resolve his departure with Lassina Traore and Brian Brobbey internally.”
With the £20 million-rated Traore now off the table, West Ham’s striker search goes on.
The Hammers have reportedly failed with bids for Youssef En-Nesyri and Gaetan Laborde while, according to the Guardian, neither Olivier Giroud nor Patson Daka will be arriving either.
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