David Moyes’ verdict on West Ham United striker target has emerged this summer. West Ham United are looking to finalise a deal for a new striker but one potential signing seemingly didn’t convince David Moyes. The Hammers are back in the market for a new striker yet again.
West Ham United’s inability to find strikers who can make a lasting impact is bordering on the ridiculous now.
The likes of Sebastien Haller, Gianluca Scamacca, Albian Ajeti and Danny Ings have been brought in but with limited success. Michail Antonio has been a major hit for West Ham but he is now 34 and and managed just 11 Premier League goals across the last two seasons.
West Ham must bring in another goalscoring option for new boss Julen Lopetegui – and appear to be closing in on a signing. West Ham United focus on Niclas Fullkrug
The top target for West Ham has been Aston Villa striker Jhon Duran.
Tim Steidten was confident of striking a deal for Duran last week and the Hammers were pushing for his arrival. West Ham still haven’t met the £40million asking price though and HITC understands that the move for Duran has been ditched – for now at least.
The offer for Duran – worth up to £35million – has been left on the table but West Ham are now working on another deal.
HITC understands that West Ham are now in talks to land Borussia Dortmund forward Niclas Fullkrug. Dortmund have snapped up Serhou Guirassy this summer and may be willing to let Fullkrug go.
Duran is the top target for Lopetegui but the West Ham boss is happy to go with Fullkrug as German director Steidten – who knows all about Fullkrug from the Bundesliga – pushes for the veteran striker.
David Moyes verdict on Fullkrug
Fullkrug is often branded as a ‘throwback’, a physical number nine who loves to battle against centre backs and cause problems in the air. The 31-year-old is a big, burly figure – the kind of striker we don’t see all that often anymore.
Goals have flowed for Fullkrug in recent years, smashing 46 goals in 99 games for Werder Bremen before scoring 15 times for Dortmund last season. A target man like Fullkrug won’t be to everybody’s taste and that seemingly applies to David Moyes.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football earlier this summer, Alan Shearer admitted speaking to Moyes about Fullkrug.
The former Hammers boss admitted that he thought Fullkrug was ‘missing one or two things’, meaning West Ham didn’t move to sign him. However, Moyes looked into him a little more in the second half of last season and felt that West Ham had probably got Fullkrug wrong after all.
“I was speaking to David Moyes about him as well. And he was saying that they had a look at him [Fullkrug] at West Ham, but they just thought he was missing one or two things,” said Shearer. “But for the last sort of six months, he sort of reviewed it and thought, maybe they got that one wrong,” he added.
Fullkrug has previously hinted that he rejected a move to West Ham before choosing to join Dortmund.
Moyes only left West Ham a few months ago but may now see his former club pounce to sign Fullkrug after all.
Lopetegui is the main who will be charged with the task of getting the best out of Fullkrug, hopefully leading him to more success than many West Ham strikers in years gone by.
