West Ham are all wrapped up in the signing of marquee striker Maxi Gomez currently. While missing out on Salomon Rondon would be a blow to the transfer plan, it isn’t the end of the world for Pellegrini if he gets his man Gomez across the line.
Reports started flying in this weekend that West Ham striker target Salomon Rondon was off to China to join up with former manager Rafa Benitez at his new club, Dalian Yifang. With Benitez moving on from Newcastle and Mike Ashley refusing to do much of anything so far in this window, Rondon is looking for a new how away from Championship side West Brom.
West Ham are linked with the Venezuelan striker for a few obvious reasons. First, West Ham are very thin on striker options with Arnautovic and Perez sold, and Hugill and Chicharito likely to be moved in the coming weeks. Secondly, Manuel Pellegrini and Mario Husillos had previously worked with Rondon at Malaga in Spain.
The link was verified by West Ham ITK ExWHUemployee on his weekly radio show and on Twitter, confirming the player was high on our striker target list.
The initial rumored offers of £10m plus Sam Byram and Jordan Hugill, and £14m plus Sam Byram have been rejected by former Hammers boss Slaven Bilic and West Brom. The striker does have a £16m release clause which would need to be triggered by the Hammers to seal the deal.
With all attention on Maxi Gomez in the striker tog-of-war with Valencia, the Rondon news went quiet over the weekend. As mentioned, reports linking Rondon to Dalian Yifang started to emerge and it is believed Benitez will pursue the 29-year-old striker in the coming days.
While worrying for the Hammers there are two main reasons why it isn’t the end of the world for Pellegrini and his striker plans: the links are shaky at best (Daily Mail), and there are other options for a backup/tandem striker to pursue.
One really promising player that could be pursued was again identified by ExWHUemployee, in Wout Weghorst of Wolfsburg of the Bundesliga. The 26-year-old striker is valued by transfermarkt at £20m which is considerably more than Rondon, but his younger age and better goals-to-game ratio over last season certainly justifies the increased price tag.
With Wolfsburg, Weghorst scored 17 goals in 32 League matches, chipping in seven assists as well. Pellegrini likes using different forwards with different strengths; should the Hammers land speedy, clinical Gomez, then Weghorst would be a perfect target-man partner for him.
Missing on Rondon would be a blow, but if West Ham can pivot from the loss, then it could turn out to be a positive result immediately and certainly in the future. The most important target right now is Maxi Gomez, the backup can fall into place after that!