David Gold responds to reported West Ham interest in PL playmaker
By Danny Wright
David Gold has suggested that West Ham may not be pursuing Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere this summer.
The Sun has previously reported that the Irons are prepared to break their club record transfer to steal the Premier League playmaker away from the Emirates with a bid worth £30million.
However Hammers co-owner Gold has asserted that he may not be looking to strengthen what he already considers to be a capable midfield and is instead looking at attacking options.
“We are interested in all good players but we have to face the facts here – we have got good midfielders,” he told TalkSport when asked about the link to Wilshere.
“We have got a good defence, we have got good midfielders, we have got good wingers. We need strikers and that is the key to everything for this season so we are focused first and foremost on bringing in two strikers.”
Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho have both struggled with injuries over the course of the last year, and scored just eight goals between them all season as West Ham notably struggled.
There have been many factors in why the Irons didn’t manage to reach expectations, one being the change of stadium, but Gold thinks it could be down to the poor recruitment from abroad last summer.
“We have tried the route of going overseas to bring in players – that hasn’t worked. We had a very difficult season because players we brought in from Europe didn’t make the grade and we paid the price. We struggled,” he added.
The Hammers have been linked with some exciting attacking talent since the season ended, however most of them do come from overseas.
French news outlet Foot Mercato has reported that Borussia Monchengladbach’s Thorgan Hazard is on the Irons’ radar while the Sun has recently claimed they could meet the £24million buy-out clause for Sampdoria’s Luis Muriel.
Slaven Bilic has already sorted out on problem area in his squad by bringing in proven Premier League performer Pablo Zabaleta from Manchester City on a free transfer to ail his concerns about the right-back position.
In other West Ham news, a top-flight club is eyeing this Hammers 29-year-old.
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