January transfer window update as West Ham United joined by Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea in race for Santiago Gimenez
Feyenoord are not interested in selling West Ham striker target Santiago Gimenez during the January transfer window, according to HITC.
Graeme Bailey reported via the outlet’s website on 12 January that sources close to the Dutch club have said they aren’t looking to sell and it would take a “sizeable” offer of around £40million to change that.
That will therefore rule out a Premier League switch this month with none of the clubs interested in the Mexican, including West Ham, prepared to spend so much in the winter window.
As well as West Ham there is extensive interest elsewhere in the English top flight, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and Fulham all tracking the 22-year-old, while clubs around Europe are also on his trail.
Gimenez has 18 Eredivisie goals in just 16 appearances so far this term, leading Feyenoord to believe his one of the “best young strikers in the world”.
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At his age and with that sort of scoring record behind him this season then it is clearly going to cost for any club to get hold of Gimenez any time soon.
With so many big teams looking for help up front a similar market to the one that developed for central midfielders in the summer, which helped net the Irons £105m from Arsenal for Declan Rice, looks to be on the cards.
The old cliché is that gaudy numbers in the Dutch top flight can be deceptive when it translates to the Premier League since for every Luis Suarez or Ruud van Nistelrooy there is an Alfonso Alves or Mateja Kezman, so if Gimenez does arrive the hefty fee could equally prove a bargain or a huge waste.
Since David Moyes is currently faced with relying on Danny Ings, who would otherwise be readily available for any club to take off the Hammers’ hands after an ineffective year at the club, he clearly needs a new goalscorer.
The failure to replace Gianluca Scamacca in the summer has now come back to bite West Ham, with Michail Antonio out injured for some weeks yet, Mohammed Kudus at the Africa Cup of Nations and both Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta now ruled out too.
And with a need to sell in order to buy it has left the manager stuck as to who he allows to depart from the forward positions when he now has to play them, but either way it looks like Gimenez is an unrealistic prospect right now.
In other West Ham news, four clubs are now vying to sign an unwanted London Stadium ace this month.