Sky Sports’ claims regarding transfer window targets are usually pretty decent: So this report from Rob Dorsett deserves a closer look even though it might not tick all the boxes of West Ham’s search for a ‘young’ pacy striker. All things being relative, of course – Anyone under thirty, to be fair, would be considered ‘young’ by West Ham’s recent recruitment standards.
So the Sky Sports article that appeared today suggesting that Nuno is looking for a reunion with a former player deserve to be taken seriously despite us all having heard them before – and being somewhat lukewarm to the player concerned owing to his patchy goal scoring record .
According to Dorsett:
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“West Ham are interested in signing Fulham winger Adama Traore in January. Hammers boss Nuno Espirito Santo became close with Traore when they worked together at Wolves, and he also wanted to sign him while in charge at Nottingham Forest.
Linked again – 29 year old Adama Traore
The 29-year-old is one of several Fulham players who see their contracts expire next summer. He had a year-long extension activated in June.”
Useful squad addition but not a striker to build a team around
The worry is that Traore is already ‘just’ being used as an impact substitute by Fulham – whilst of course ‘Nuno knows best’ – West Ham have had their fill of bit-part signings who lose their pace when they hit 30. We’ve got a couple of those on the books already.
As one of a couple of new front-line signings, or a useful ‘squad’ addition, it would be difficult to find fault: You’d certainly hope that West Ham weren’t pinning all their goal scoring hopes on Traore who scored just twice last season and ‘hasn’t troubled the scorers’ this term.