Report: West Ham ready £16m bid for Josh King after first offer rejected
West Ham are preparing a new and improved second offer for Bournemouth attacker Josh King, according to The Sun.
The report reveals that the Irons had a £13million bid rejected by the Championship club, but that hasn’t ended their interest.
Now it is thought West Ham will raise the fee to £16m in order to secure his signing this transfer window.
King’s contract expires in the summer but the Hammers are keen to beat Burnley and West Brom to his signature.
Bournemouth were thought to have wanted £10m for King a few months ago, but are unwilling to budge despite the risk of losing the 29-year-old for nothing in the summer.
Running out of options
Perhaps unsurprisingly, West Ham’s transfer business has been conducted in a rather hasty manner this month.
It appears there was no real plan in place in regard for replacing Sebastien Haller, as a number of targets have been lined up.
The likes of Moussa Dembele, Josh Maja and Youssef En-Nesyri have all be enlinked to the club this month along with a few other names.
There is little correlation between these players, and that hints at a sense of desperation and disorganisation in our striker search.
It wouldn’t be the first time that has happened, as our record at signing strikers is abundantly clear.
Haller and Albian Ajeti are examples of that, and they have now both left over the last two transfer windows.
Time is running out in the window and it seems odd to spend £16m on a player we could get for free in a few months.
However, Michail Antonio’s fitness record means he can’t solely be relied on for the remainder of the season and other clubs will know how much we need a striker.
That means they can raise the price and hold out for a sizeable fee until close to the end of the window.
The lack of foresight and planning means we might have to pay both literally and figuratively this January.
In other West Ham news, Cagliari have rejected our loan bid for striker Simeone.