Sky: London club make enquiry for prolific striker after reported West Ham interest
By Harvey Byrne
Crystal Palace have made an initial enquiry to Brentford for star striker and West Ham target Scott Hogan, according to reports.
Sky Sports reported on their transfer centre blog (Saturday, 9.26am) that the Hammers remained interested in the 24-year-old and that they had lowered their original asking price as the deadline draws closer.
However, the popular broadcast station have since reported on Monday on their official Twitter account that south east London rivals Palace had made an enquiry for Hogan.
It is believed that Brentford are now willing to accept £13million for a player they had originally valued at £15million.
The young striker’s current contract at the Bees is set to run out in the summer and the club could be forced to lower their asking fee further if the saga runs up until the Tuesday deadline to avoid losing him on a free.
Hogan has been in prolific form for the club this campaign with a return of 14 goals from his 27 appearances in all competitions.
Slaven Bilic is understandably keen to bring in a new striker this window after summer signings Simone Zaza, Jonathan Calleri, Andre Ayew and Ashley Fletcher all struggled to fill in a void left by injured Andy Carroll for various reasons this season.
However, he will now have to act fast if Sam Allardyce is also keen on the young Championship attacker.
Football Insider verdict:
West Ham wasted too much time on the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Michy Batshuayi and Carlos Bacca in the summer before being forced to take on flop Zaza on 28 August with the transfer clock winding down. Now, if the club miss out on Hogan they will have repeated the exact procedure this window despite the differing reasons to the top level three not joining. The Hammers have reportedly put so much time and effort into obtaining Hogan this window that they cannot now end the window without the striker as well as avoiding a backlash from the club’s supporters. It is clear that a new striker is needed in this Hammers team and they must now go out and beat Palace to the signing of Hogan.
In other West Ham transfer news, the Hammers have reached a finale for this striker after top-level talks.
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