West Ham cutting it close in chase of Albian Ajeti

West Ham are reportedly looking to add another striker to their squad before the end of the window. With a price tag of 8m, Albian Atletji would be a real bargain. If we can get it over the line.

Death, Taxes, and West Ham fans moaning about the board during a transfer window. These are the certainties of life. Despite breaking our record transfer fee twice last season people were angry at the lack of action close to the close of the window, and now despite two of the most exciting additions in recent years (Haller and Fornals) as well a recent defensive addition in Cardoso the board have still managed to open themselves up.

It was well known that we wanted an addition striker for the squad, and it seems Albian AJeti is the main target. Given that his price tag is 8m you’d think any sticking point would be the player themselves. But no, the player wants to join, and we won’t stump up the extra 2m. So the fans are, seemingly understandably, angry at the board. 2m should be nothing to a Premier League club, and the other club who has met the price is in the Championship.

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So to be fair to those fans that I’d usually be calling reactionary, it seems a bit cheap that we’re not willing to pay 8m for a striker who had 32 goal contributions in 43 games last season. But for me the biggest issues isn’t the price, it’s the fact that we’re very close to the end of the window, and it’s hard to play these games against the clock. We don’t have too much time for the player to talk to the club and try and get the move going.

But I can see what the board are doing. We’ve seen it done by big clubs before when they know a player wants to join them, it knocks a bit off of the asking price if the selling club want to get a deal done. Here we are the desired destination and we’re trying to use it to get the best deal we can. And just because 2m is a fairly small amount in this market it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and save it where we can. As long as it doesn’t cost us a player that will improve us.

And there is the crux of the matter. If we end up getting Ajeti, for whatever price (as long as it’s not above the 8m originally stated) then it’s fine. We can try and save money. we’ll have the player and it will have only been a day or two longer in the negotiation. But if we lose out over 2m, we’re either saying that we weren’t really interested, or we’re completely useless in negotiation. Lets hope we don’t miss out.