By Daniel Feliciano

7th Jan, 2022 | 9:45pm

View: West Ham face big blow in pursuit for Divock Origi

West Ham have been dealt a blow in their pursuit of striker Divock Origi after it was claimed by The Athletic that Liverpool have no interest in selling him this January.

The Belgium striker has been linked [ExWHUEmployee] with a move away from Anfield as he enters the final six months of his contract at the club, having spent seven years as a backup.

But the latest whispers coming out of Liverpool are that the club have no intention of letting him leave this January and the player isn’t looking to move on either.

According to James Pearce, there are currently ‘no plans’ to sell the striker and there is a clause in the player’s contract to extend for a further 12 months if he makes a certain number of appearances this season.

With Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane away at AFCON for the next month, he is likely to see much more playing time.

Blow

For West Ham, it’s a blow to their January window plans because he would have been seen as a relatively easy target to secure.

Origi is an experienced player with plenty to prove and a knack for scoring important goals in big games and has been described as ‘tremendous‘ by Peter Crouch in the past.

He’s used to being on the bench and not playing regularly, which means any sort of improvement on playing time would be seen as a positive for him.

Unfortunately now, that seems as though it won’t be possible this season anyway.

The club will have to go back to the drawing board in terms of targets for the striker position, and it will likely cost far more than Origi would have and they likely won’t have the top-level experience the Belgian does.

It’s a blow undoubtedly, but it isn’t one that West Ham can’t get over and bounce back from.

In other West Ham news, Liverpool reject seven-digit bid for ‘monster’ defender West Ham want to sign.