Graham Potter has a busy summer transfer window ahead of the 2025/26 Premier League
West Ham’s perpetual striker search continues this summer with Graham Potter looking to overhaul his squad following a mediocre start to his life at the London Stadium and with the ex-Brighton boss committed to playing a front two, a Rangers star valued at £20 million could be the answer.
It makes Jarrod Bowen’s success in east London even more remarkable - but means the Hammers will have to reinvest immediately at centre-forward and one player who’s caught their eye is Hamza Igamane.
The Moroccan has plenty of top suitors this summer but West Ham could seal the deal by offering Tomas Soucek as a swap to fill one of Rangers’ glaring needs this window.
Hamza Igamane and Jarrod Bowen front two could be unstoppable
With a similar profile to Alexander Isak or Benjamin Sesko, Igamane’s stock is sky-high after scoring 16 goals in a dream debut season at Ibrox.
Igamane’s exploded onto the scene in Scotland having arrived with a decidedly unspectacular reputation from AS FAR in the Moroccan capital - he averaged a goal every three games in the top flight but failed to crack the top 10 in the race for the golden boot before Rangers signed him for a bargain. Igamane boasted a ludicrous strike rate of +0.53 goals minutes expected goals, better than any attacker in Europe’s elite leagues meaning he effectively created a goal out of nothing every other game.
And while the Moroccan didn’t assist many goals last season, he does still get heavily involved in buildup play so would complement Bowen well. He’s ranks very highly for passes into the final third - his numbers are equivalent to the top 3% of strikers in Europe’s top five leagues - progressive passes and ‘key passes’ (passes that lead directly to a shot) so is a master at moving the ball up the pitch and into the right areas.
With numbers like that, it’s also not implausible that Igamane could return a hatful more assists next season starting alongside Bowen, who spends much more of his time in the final third - over 50% of Bowen’s touches came there last season compared to just 42.6% for Igamane. The 22-year-old is equally comfortably with the ball at his feet, notching over three successful take-ons per game - which would put him in the top 1% of strikers in Europe’s big five leagues if he were to replicate that next season.
Signing Igamane would allow West Ham to cash in on Kudus, who’s been a fantastic asset to West Ham but doesn’t fit Potter’s 3-1-4-2 or 3-4-1-2 system particularly well either as a striker or a wing-back, and replace him with a cheaper player who’s better suited to partnering Bowen up front and could return a similar goal contribution rate to the 2024 Hammer of the Year.
Or even better, West Ham could secure up to £85m for the Ghanaian, and get Igamane for barely more than a sweetener if they send Soucek north of the border.
Tomas Soucek could become Rangers icon
Aged 30, Soucek still has plenty to give to football and after his highest-scoring season at West Ham it may seem like sacrilege to suggest Potter lets go of the Czech. But ahead of his first full season in charge at the London Stadium, Potter is chasing dynamic Club Brugge midfielder Raphael Onyedika as one of (if not the) top priority this transfer window, with the Nigerian valued at €24 million (£20m).
Soucek is an unorthodox player as something of a goal poacher but one who works best sitting deeper in midfield and has never made more than three Premier League assists in a season, so Onyedika would represent more normality in the centre of the pitch as Potter seeks to replicate his stunning success at Brighton.
Meanwhile selling high is the name of the game more than ever in the Profit and Sustainability Rules era and because Soucek enjoyed his best season in claret and blue, West Ham’s valuation of their fan favourite could come close to matching Rangers’ asking price for Igamane.
He arrived at Ibrox for just £1.7m last summer and TEAMtalk believe he’s now on sale for more than 10 times that, £20m. So sending him south of the border either as a straight swap for Soucek or with West Ham spending £1-3m to secure the deal would represent a very solid return on investment.
Soucek’s knack of scoring goals - and particularly match-altering ones - would mean he’d quickly endear himself to a Rangers faithful hoping for midfield upgrades next season while West Ham would secure a potential Bowen replica at striker - a win for all parties.
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