While Marko Arnautovic returned to the starting eleven when we beat Huddersfield at the weekend, Calciomercato believe West Ham are still looking toward the Serie A to find the Austrian’s successor.
The former Stoke winger certainly put on a display at the London Stadium that would suggest we would be right to still be scouting alternative forwards, but the Italian publication’s suggestion that we are looking at AS Roma’s Edin Dzeko comes with its own issues.
They are claiming that we, along with Everton and Inter Milan, cannot be ruled out in approaching the 32-year-old, should he leave the Stadio Olimpico as expected in the summer, as his contract will enter its final 12-months in July.
His capture would signal another Manuel Pellegrini old-boy linking with the Chilean in East London after Samir Nasri was signed on the back of his drugs ban.
Dzeko, though, would not be joining with as poor of a background as the Frenchman, but rather a transfer fee of between €15-25million (£12.8-21.3m), which Calciomercato consider a set price for the former Manchester City hitman seen as one of the few leaders left at the Giallorossi.
The Italian football news site have previously noted, as well, that we had shown a serious interest in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s captain replacing Arnautovic in January had he moved to China.
Should we return to our winter interest in the 99-cap international as expected, Inter’s growing presence will likely be the most challenging hurdle that we have to overcome, as the San Siro outfit consider the 6-foot-3 centre-forward as an alternative to Mauro Icardi.
