West Ham United offered £27m Hugo Ekitike deal, plan emerges after Tim Steidten holds transfer talks

Hugo Ekitike is “not a deal” that West Ham are “likely to pursue” after the French striker was offered to Premier League clubs, according to FootballTransfers.

The outlet reported via their website Tuesday (22 August) that the Hammers technical director Tim Steidten has held talks with Paris Saint-Germain advisor Luis Campos over the 21-year-old forward after Ekitike was told he wasn’t needed at the Parc des Princes.

PSG want £27million for the former Stade de Reims man after only buying him a year ago, and are looking to sell him him to English top flight clubs, but West Ham apparently aren’t going to follow through their interest, although the player himself “prefers” the Premier League for his next move.

The Irons are in the hunt for a new striker to replace now-Atalanta man Gianluca Scamacca, with Michail Antonio wanting to move on as well.

The pursuit of Elye Wahi from Montpelllier fell through thanks to Lucas Paqueta’s exit to Manchester City not going ahead [Jacob Steinberg, 19 August] and a push for versatile Ajax star Mohammed Kudus is in progress with Steidten leading the way.

If West Ham aren’t willing to go ahead with this move that either means they don’t rate Ekitike at that price or they have alternatives they like better.

Otherwise, for a club in need of a forward in a short space of time this deal seems to tick all the boxes, as his club are looking to get rid of him and he wants to move to England.

After a stop-start season in Paris behind the illustrious trio of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe he could do with playing more often, and after 10 Ligue 1 goals in the previous season for Reims he knows where the net is.

Whether that will necessarily translate to the Premier League is impossible to say until he arrives, but he seems to have the age profile and ability of the kind of target that Steidten has championed this summer, even if David Moyes hasn’t.

As FootballTransfers suggested, in the wake of the differences of opinion between the manager and the technical director it appears that the more recent pursuits are an attempt to balance the interests of each.

Edson Alvarez and new imminent arrival Konstantinos Mavropanos seem like Steidten men, as does Kudus, while James Ward-Prowse is very much a Moyes option as a proven domestic veteran, as was Harry Maguire until that push broke down.

So it may be that at striker Moyes is the one who has final say on where money gets spent, but the club will need to hurry up to get someone in before the deadline.

In other West Ham news, the Hammers are after another signing after watching a “gifted” defender in action and his current club “know” bids are on the way.