West Ham loan swoop on the cards to sign Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke
West Ham could sign Christian Benteke on loan from Crystal Palace before the transfer window shuts at 11pm tomorrow (Monday), according to The Guardian.
The newspaper reports on their website that the Hammers are under pressure to sign an attacking player in the final 48 hours of January and have so far fallen short in pursuits of Patrik Schick, Ben Brereton Diaz and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
It is understood that there’s a chance Benteke, 31, could be landed on a temporary basis from Palace in order for David Moyes to pad out his centre-forward options in East London.
Makes sense
Benteke will enter the final year of his contract in the summer and Crystal Palace will probably want to let the striker show what he can do while on loan at another club before selling him.
The former Liverpool and Aston Villa striker, who’s been capped 43 times by Belgium, is as adapted to the Premier League as you can get.
He’s played 267 times in England’s top-flight, scored 86 goals and has the physique to be able to stand up to some of the league’s toughest defenders.
Benteke has shown that he can score goals from the bench and have impact in matches as a substitute and that’s perfect when you consider the fact that we need a back-up for Michail Antonio.
Moyes hasn’t signed anyone yet this month and we’re now into the final 48 hours of the transfer window.
If we finish off the month by signing a centre-back and a striker then you can safely say that the job has been done.
And loan deals make sense too as we don’t want to be caught out spending too much money in January when prices are ramped up and players are expected to hit the ground running without a pre-season to get up to speed.
Benteke, as a loan signing, would be a decent acquisiton.
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