West Ham United will face one of the most feared forwards in the Premier League when they take on Oliver Glasner’s Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in Monday’s late kick-off.
No, we are not talking about Jean-Philippe Mateta, even if the Frenchman does have three goals in his last three matches following an aborted transfer to AC Milan and a winter injury.
The Hammers held talks with Wolves over Jorgen Strand Larsen before his £48 million move to South London. But he has not scored in seven for club or country.
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West Ham Crystal Palace combined XI
Ismaila Sarr though, since the turn of the year, has been putting many a Premier League centre-forward to shame.
Two years after Hammers News’ sister site HITC Sport claimed that West Ham were keen to sign Sarr from Marseille on a deadline day deal, the free-scoring Senegalese will go eyeball-to-eyeball with Mads Hermansen having already racked up a career-best tally of 17 goals in 2025/26.
West Ham United tried to sign Ismaila Sarr from Marseille
Sarr had been on West Ham’s radar since his Watford days. According to Dean Jones of Give Me Sport, a deadline day transfer failed to materialise in January 2024 largely because they and Marseille had very different ideas of how a deal should be structured.
Ismaila Sarr during ACF Fiorentina v Crystal Palace FC - UEFA Conference League 2025/26 Quarter-Final Second Leg
Photo by Domenico Cippitelli/NurPhoto via Getty Images
“Even late in the afternoon today they were looking at opportunities, and one of those was Sarr,” Jones said. “He is the style of player that was appealing to them so some digging did go into it.
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“But from what I know, it didn’t sound like it would lead to a move. For a deal like that, West Ham would just want a straight loan but it’s not really what Marseille had in mind.”
Seven months later, Marseille would accept a bid from another London-based outfit. Crystal Palace snapped up Sarr, who had struggled in France, for a knockdown fee of £12.5 million. That very same summer, West Ham would invest nearly £80 million on a new-look attacking trident of Crysencio Summerville, Luis Guilherme and Niclas Fullkrug.
In hindsight, only around £25 million of that was money well spent.
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A graphic on a quote from Jean-Clair Todibo on Crysencio Summerville reading: "When he takes the ball, I think everyone is scared in the league."
Credit: Getty Images/Rob Newell – CameraSport
Crysencio Summerville head-to-head with Sarr at Selhurst Park
On his first start in a month, Summerville looked lively as West Ham thrashed Wolves 4-0 at the London Stadium. He and Sarr would arrive in the capital just two days apart during the summer of 2024; the former joining the Hammers on August 3rd, Sarr having touched down at Selhurst Park on August 1st.
As both wingers look to maintain arguably the best goalscoring streaks of their careers at the elite level, a battle between Sarr and Summerville should provide no shortage of entertainment on a Monday evening in Croydon.
“He is phenomenal. He’s so underrated,” Crystal Palace midfielder Will Hughes said of Sarr, who took his tally to 17 with a crashing header as Oliver Glasner’s side beat Fiorentina in the Conference League quarter-finals on Thursday.
“What he produces week in, week out, over a number of years now, it’s been incredible really.”
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