Sam Inkersole of Football.London has suggested Mario Husillos must target Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez and AC Milan star Franck Kessie if Manuel Pellegrini is going to guide the Hammers into European contention. But while they would be ideal targets, they are impossible without first overhauling the boss’ squad.
Gomez is considered a must in terms of signings by Inkersole, as we are likely going to be in need of a new focal point next season with the expected turnover of our current strikers.
Pellegrini and Husillos have also been tracking the Uruguayan for some time now, and would likely have taken confidence in his abilities having scored 13 La Liga goals on route to Celta’s survival, and assisting a further five, for a strike rate of one every 228 minutes.
As for Kessie, Inkersole feels the Ivory Coast international is ‘the box-to-box midfielder that the Hammers are simply crying out for’, and he’s not wrong. The only thing, however, is that the Rossoneri will demand €40million (£35.2m) for him. Otherwise put, more than our starting £30million budget for the summer.
Gomez would also cost more than our pre-sale budget, as Celta have no need to sell the centre-forward and his release clause will remain at £43.5million now that Vigo avoided the drop into the Segunda Division.
So Kessie and Gomez would together set us back close to £80million, and it is near on impossible to see how Husillos would be able to drum up £50million through sales now that Marko Arnautovic appears set to stay at the club.
The likely casualties of Husillos and Pellegrini’s overhaul in Lucas Perez, Javier Hernandez, and Pedro Obiang would just about scrape £20m going by TransferMarkt’s current valuations, and they are likely the big ticket items on our transfer list right now.
