Currently, West Ham's centre forward situation isn't impressive amidst Niclas Fullkrug's unavailability due to his achilles injury. Moreover, Michail Antonio is also past his best Premier League form and at 34-years-old, could look to depart West Ham on a free transfer next year after playing ten seasons at the London Stadium.
Alongside Antonio, Danny Ings is also highly likely to leave the Hammers on a free transfer as he has also entered into the final year of his West Ham contract. Despite not being a great signing for the Hammers unlike Antonio, Ings is a decent second-choice striker and the departures of both Antonio and Ings would leave behind a huge void at the striker position.
West Ham lining up 27-year-old Europa League hat-trick hero as Antonio replacement
Thus, West Ham could add a few young forwards to their squad in the upcoming transfer windows and GIVEMESPORT reports that the Hammers may bring in the UEFA Europa League hat-trick hero as well. Last season, 27-year-old Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman scored a memorable hat-trick in the Europa League final against Bayer Leverkusen to secure the European trophy for the Serie A side.
Alongside his hat-trick heroics, Lookman has registered nearly 20 goal contributions in each of his previous two seasons at Atalanta, helping them become one of the best goalscoring teams in Europe's top-five leagues. Therefore, Lookman's finishing is world-class, which is one of West Ham's struggling areas this season. Thus, the Hammers would be keen to add a goalscorer of Lookman's quality to bolster their squad.
Lookman has previously played in the Premier League for Fulham and Leicester City on-loan, where he showed his incredible talent before joining Atalanta on a permanent basis in 2022. Gianpiero Gasperini's side knows the significance of the left-sided forward to their squad, and thus, could demand around £40 million to part ways with him.
That is a significant transfer fee for the Hammers, who could offer experienced players such as Vladimir Coufal in a swap deal to Atalanta for signing the Nigeria international for around £25 million. However, there are still two months remaining for the January transfer window to open and it remains to be seen whether West Ham will need to bring a new forward to their squad in-case their goalscoring struggles are resolved in the upcoming matches.