West Ham United are desperate to add more attacking reinforcements to the lineup following a terrible season last term. The hugely hyped campaign, which saw the Hammers move into their new London Stadium and start their campaign with Europa League games fizzled out way too quickly than the fans had thought.
And Slaven Bilic’s frivolous summer shopping last year was responsible for it to a large extent. The Croatian had made a huge mistake of targeting the big fishes in the market with a Europa League qualifying stature and consequently ended up adding Simone Zaza on-loan, Sofian Feghouli and Manuel Lanzini on the attacking front.
The result was nightmarish as injuries to Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho at the beginning of the season left Bilic with no option when Zaza failed up front. The Italian forward left for La Liga in the winter and Bilic did make some witty buys in the likes of Robert Snodgrass and Jose Fonte. But, it seems the Croat has fallen back to his old mindset as their summer targets have feature Arsenal forwards Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott of late and Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge.
And if recent reports are to be believed, they have targeted Bundesliga’s third highest scorer Anthony Modeste now. The Hammer have purportedly tabled a bid of 25million euros (£22million) for the FC Cologne forward, which was rejected. Arriving at the club two seasons back, Modeste is at his peak now given his prolific goal scoring.
At 29, the Frenchman has been more of a late bloomer but was unstoppable last season with a whopping 25 goals in 34 games for the club. His superior strength and sublime finishing skills make him one of the top strikers in Europe at the moment and West Ham, now without even their slim European stature they had last season, would find it very difficult to land him.
The club’s co-chairman David Gold has been very vocal concerning the club’s willingness to bring in potential forwards this summer. But FC Cologne demanding a whopping £35 million for Modeste has been a huge dampener for the London club and although they are expected to come back with an improved bid, their asking price is hardly a possibility for the Hammers.
An academy product of Ligue 1 side OGC Nice, Modeste made his way up through numerous French sides like SCO Angers, FC Girondins Bordeaux and SC Bastia. His progress also included a short stint with Blackburn Rovers but he proved to be a failure. However, now things going his way, the Hammers would expect him to be at his peak for the next three years.
