West Ham turn focus to sign striker Nuno Espirito Santo wanted at Nottingham Forest
West Ham United are working hard to sign a new centre-forward ahead of the January transfer window.
Nuno Espirito Santo is clearly not sold on the prospect of Callum Wilson being his starting striker for the remainder of the season, and needs someone to challenge the Englishman for his spot in the team.
Wilson was taken off after just 63 minutes as West Ham drew 2-2 with Brighton, despite the fact that the Hammers were searching for a winner at the time.
Now, Nuno is targeting a Premier League frontman who he previously tried to sign while still in charge of former club Nottingham Forest.
West Ham eye move for Eddie Nketiah
With Niclas Fullkrug joining AC Milan on loan until the end of the season, a new striker has become West Ham’s number one priority for the upcoming window.
The East London side have been linked with a multitude of options over recent weeks, as they look to bring in a goalscorer who can fire them to Premier League safety.
According to ExWHUEmployee via Patreon, West Ham are now in talks over a potential move to sign Crystal Palace’s Eddie Nketiah.
The 26-year-old, who joined Palace from Arsenal in the summer of 2024, has made just two Premier League starts this season, but does have two goals to his name.
Before his move to Selhurst Park at the start of last season, Nketiah was targeted by Nuno and Nottingham Forest.
Forest and Arsenal had a £30million agreement in place, but the deal broke down, with the Englishman instead making the switch to Palace.
Eddie Nketiah has ‘goal machine’ potential
Back in the 2020-21 season, Nketiah became the England Under-21s’ all-time leading goalscorer, surpassing the record held by a certain Alan Shearer.
Nketiah notched 16 goals in 17 games at youth level, and former Liverpool and Real Madrid centre forward Michael Owen predicted at the time that he would go on to become a “goal machine” in the rest of his career.
Speaking to VAVEL in November 2020, Owen said: “With that type of attitude, with the way he plays, he’s just going to be a goal machine all his career.”
However, Nketiah is yet to hit the heights that Owen predicted, and has still never started more than 10 games, or scored more than five goals, in a single Premier League season.
Nuno will hope that he can be the one to extract the Palace man’s full potential, if a January transfer does indeed materialise.
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