Tony Cottee praises West Ham United’s early transfer business

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West Ham United secured a top 10 finish last season as they will be pushing for Europe this time around.

Sky Sports pundit Tony Cottee has lauded West Ham United for signing playmaker Pablo Fornals, as he now urged the club to add a forward to their squad.

Versatile attacker Fornals moved to the London Stadium earlier this month from Spanish side Villareal for a fee worth £24 million [BBC Sport].

The 23-year-old will be hoping to add much-needed attacking quality to the Hammers’ final third as they search for European football under Manuel Pellegrini

Former Upton Park favourite Cottee expressed his delight at what West Ham have been doing early on in the transfer window as he urged them to fill the centre-forward role.

“We’re not far away from getting our squad in a position [where we need to be]. We probably need another forward in my opinion, so hopefully, we’ll get that done,” Cottee told West Ham’s official website.

“Most importantly on Fornals, he’s a young player who has been playing at a high level in Spain and he’s an attacking midfielder, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he slots in. We’ve got some outstanding midfield players and we’ve got some outstanding wide players as well, so the manager will have plenty of options.

“Hopefully it’s going to be a really good signing for the club, and again we’re not buying players for £4m now, we’re buying players for £24m and that shows you where the club are. We’re a top ten club – we finished tenth last year and we’ve got to build on that. We’ve got to push on.”

The Hammers ended the previous campaign in 10th place, and at the very least, they will want to maintain that top-10 finish going into the new season.

It won’t be easy for the London club because there will be plenty of other clubs fighting for those spots and with it showing ambition in the transfer market.

From Marco Silva’s Everton, who finished the last campaign in eighth place to Leicester City, who will be looking to make their mark in Brendan Rodgers’ first full season in charge.