West Ham: Lacazette contract latest; Bilic on new signing; Leicester man nearly a Hammer

By grvadmin

Days after the transfer window shut, West Ham target Alexandre Lacazette has been offered a new £85,000-a-week deal, according to the Sun. It is reported that this includes a £59 million release clause. The Hammers were reported to have made a big of over £30 million during the summer, in their search for a new striker. It seems now though that any chance of signing Lacazette may be over, at least in the short term.

In all probability, the striker is now set to stay at Lyon for the foreseeable future, although both Arsenal and West Ham have new strikers anyway, so this might not seem too much of a loss for both sides.

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West Ham manager Slaven Bilic admits he is expecting a lot from new signing Simone Zaza. The Italian joined from Juventus in the summer, and in an interview reported in the Evening Standard, Bilic said that Zaza will make a huge impact at the London Stadium.

“He’s got everything on paper, of course, maybe he’s going to need a little bit of time to adjust but we’re going to help him. It’s not an individual sport, don’t get me wrong. One player can’t change by himself. But we are expecting a lot from him.”

Zaza is in line to make his West Ham debut next weekend against Watford, with Bilic insisting it was his plan to buy a striker since last year, so we will have to wait and see if the Italian is the man to fire the new inhabitants of the London Stadium towards European football.

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Manchester United have taken a trialist from West Ham’s academy, in Idris Kanu. The 16-year-old scored twice in 17 appearances for West Ham’s academy, as reported in the Daily Mail, and scored twice for Manchester United’s u18s in a 5-1 in over Middlesbrough yesterday.

Although a first team impact may have been a way off, this is nonetheless quite disappointing for Hammers fans, and will be even more so if the youngster begins to make waves at Old Trafford.

The Daily Mail are also reporting that Sam Allardyce was advised to sign Jamie Vardy while in charge of West Ham in 2012. Vardy; who was playing at Fleetwood at the time, is now working under Allardyce at the England set-up.

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It would have been interesting to see whether Vardy would have had the same success at West Ham as he did under Leicester. Would he have become the player that he is today, and battled for the golden boot? Working with Allardyce at England will give a clearer idea of how the forward would have got on, but either way, it does not stop West Ham fans dreaming of what might have been.

The striker was the subject of interest for the Hammers in the summer too, but they were priced out of a move. He would probably have fared better in a Bilic team, in terms of his goal-scoring, and with West Ham enduring something of an injury crisis at this point of the season, the addition of Vardy would have been all the more crucial.

Featured Image: All rights reserved to Paul Wright