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West Ham United have Anthony Martial on their shortlist as they look to replace Gianluca Scamacca, according to a new report.
Caughtoffside claims that the Man United forward joins the likes of Arsenal’s Folarin, Chelsea’s Armando Broja, Montpellier’s, Elye Wahi and Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesyri on the Hammers’ wishlist.
Folarin is believed to be top of the list, although “no final decision has been made on any particular pathway the club could explore for the forward department,” Caughtoffside confirms.
Whether United would sell Martial at all is an issue, given he is one of only two senior specialist centre forwards at the club, the other being new signing Rasmus Hojlund.
In a way it is a very similar story to another player the Hammers have been linked with – Harry Maguire.
In both cases, United’s asking price could be a prohibiting factor in reaching an agreement, but more importantly, both players’ wages are way above the London’s club’s salary structure.
Martial earns £250,000 a week (source: spotrac.com).
It is also unclear as to whether he would be interested in playing for a club with little chance of challenging for top honours. Maguire has reportedly expressed disinterest in a move to the London stadium and Martial could do the same.
Yet another issue is the 27 year old’s fitness. He missed 27 games through injury last season and was ruled out of the World Cup for the same reason.
He is back in training after a hamstring injury sustained in May but failed to play a single minute of United’s pre-season programme.
A loan deal would overcome some of these issues, but it would leave the Red Devils short handed. A sale would almost certainly be needed.
If all these obstacles could be overcome and United were to sell the mercurial Frenchman, they would almost certainly have to go back into the market to secure another striker at a reasonable cost.
Having paid “United tax” of £72 million for Hojlund, it is clear that this will not be an easy task, especially with the clock ticking toward deadline day. This leaves manager Erik ten Hag with a dilemma should the Londoners’ interest solidify into a bid.
