West Ham United target Armando Broja may be part of Chelsea swap for Victor Osimhen – talkSPORT
West Ham target Armando Broja could be used as part of a swap deal for Napoli forward Victor Osimhen, according to talkSPORT’s Alex Crook.
David Moyes has identified the Chelsea youngster as his top target at the forward position this summer, but is already facing competition from Everton for his signature.
At the same time the Serie A side have lined up him as a key replacement in the event that their Nigerian star is bought by Bayern Munich.
Crook reports that the Blues have also added Osimhen, 23, to the list potential replacements for their own big-money striker, Romelu Lukaku, who is now back at Inter on loan.
Although a £30million bid from the Hammers was expected some time ago, it is unclear whether one has officially been made, and the club are now worried about competition from Newcastle.
Thomas Tuchel had wanted to assess Broja during the preseason to see if he should be the man to step up, but according to the talkSPORT report the player is “growing impatient”, so he may not get the chance.
Ominous
Moyes has wanted Broja for weeks but the longer this one goes on the more and more troublesome the Irons’ path to signing him becomes.
The Premier League competition is bad enough, but then the Napoli interest cropped up, and sure enough there is already a reason for Chelsea to focus on that.
West Ham have plenty of selling points themselves, as the highest-finishing of the English teams in the race, and with a starting spot up for grabs, plus the opportunity to stay in London.
And whether they make a hugely expensive move for a striker at Stamford Bridge two seasons in a row seems unlikely, especially given their apparent focus on wide forwards this window.
But recent interest in Cristiano Ronaldo suggests it is impossible to rule out new owner making a splash statement, no matter how inadvisable it may seem.
There has now been contact between the two London sides [Mail], after Crook had suggested last week (1 July) that interested clubs were struggling to contact the American.
But the race to sign the Albanian goalscorer is growing uncomfortably crowded, and the Hammers’ progress doesn’t seem to be running too smoothly.
If they could inject some of the urgency that wrapped up the Flynn Downes move in about a week into this chase would be very beneficial right now.