According to latest reports, West Ham United have offered £26.5m for OGC Nice striker Alassane Plea. The Frenchman had a good season with the French outfit as he managed 21 goals for them in 49 appearances and provided a further 7 assists. Along with the Hammers, Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham are also said to be interested in the player but the East London club has made the first move to bring the striker to the London stadium.
West Ham are looking for a new beginning under Manuel Pellegrini and a lot will be expected out of him in the upcoming season. They have already started making inroads in the transfer market as they have wrapped up the deals for Issa Diop, Lukasz Fabianski and Ryan Fredericks earlier this summer.
The 25-year-old forward can even play down the wings as he has bags of pace and that makes him a difficult customer to handle in the wide areas. The Hammers will be looking to add some attacking prowess for the upcoming campaign after they made some shrewd acquisitions on the defensive front.
Manuel Lanzini is likely to miss most, if not the whole, of the upcoming season after damaging his knee ligament in Argentina’s training session for the World Cup. Their other attacking options like Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll are also known to be injury prone.
The Hammers will need depth in their squad if they want to challenge the big boys of the Premier League. They will want someone who can share the creative and goalscoring burden with Marko Arnautovic. The East London outfit were heavily dependent on their talismanic Austrian to bail them out last season as they managed to survive relegation after being in the survival race for a few months.
Pellegrini is looking for a striker who can score 15 to 20 goals for his team and it seems like they have zeroed in on Plea. He certainly has the potential to lead the line for his side but it remains to be seen whether he will be able to take on the challenges of the Premier League.
Read More: West Ham United Willing To Make £13m Move For 22 Y/O Barcelona Defender: Good Deal For Pellegrini?
We often see players from other leagues find it tough to cope up with Premier League’s physicality and tempo but the Chilean manager will certainly be hoping otherwise if they manage to get the striker at the Olympic Stadium. He will certainly be a good man to have upfront as he has a lot of pace and skills to go past defenders while his finishing touches are also up to the mark.
