Will the Hammers snap up one of these two natural goalscorers?

Well we now see ourselves in an annoyingly familiar situation, where with near enough the whole Summer behind us one of our main strikers has gone and got themselves injured for an extensive amount of time (10-12 weeks).

Although this situation is only a formality for the Hammers hierarchy it is not helped by the fact that this time round it is not record signing Andy Carroll – it is instead the next most expensive player in the clubs history Enner Valencia.

However this incident could prove to be a turning point in our transfer policy – for once West Ham may not only be looking for a quick fix or two (Jimenez of Atletico Madrid) but instead may be looking for a quality signing in the form of either England international Charlie Austin or Manchester United hitman Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez.

It would seem that we are desperately in need of either Austin or Hernandez given the poor showing in terms of goals we have already seen this season, namely against Birkikara and the fact we did not have the firepower to beat Romanians Astra.

Queens Park Rangers forward Austin is supposedly one of the current strikers of interest to the two Davids. However with Leicester, Spurs and Newcastle all sniffing around the 18 goal striker, and the latter seeming the most intent on landing the former Swindon and Burnley star, our chances of completing a deal are growing slim. It does help our cause that Austin is rumoured to be comfortable in London and would rather not move out of the capital.

Although one stumbling block could be his extortionate price tag of 15 million pounds, a figure that his club refuses to budge on. They cite both his goal scoring and the fact that it was his first injury free season. He does, however, only have one year left on his contract, that coupled with the obvious interest from us means it cannot be ruled out.

Mexican superstar Javier Hernandez is however a completely different kettle of fish. We West Ham fans have a history of falling in love with our passionate forwards and from viewing from afar it would seem the little pea has passion in abundance, that coupled with his intuitive finishing ability and knack for being in the right place at the right time all look to bode well if West Ham were to complete a transfer deal for the United attacker. Also the chances of this one going through seem slightly stronger than that of Austin, this is due to the fact it would seem Hernandez is not what Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal is looking for.

And, with the recent sale of Angel Di Maria it would seem he now has the funds to get the striker of his choice, freeing Chicharito to join up with the Hammers – something many media outlets would have us believe he really wants with some even going as far to say a 110,000 thousand pound a week deal has already been laid out and gobbled up by the little Mexican.

So to conclude I believe that West Ham will come close to one of Austin or Hernandez with the latter being the more likely. But it is still out of our hands as long as United don’t sign another forward. However, with Pedro waiting in the wings at Old Trafford and the Red Devils being linked with top strikers such as Benzema and Bale it would seem that before this summer window closes we could if all goes to plan ‘get our man’. Also it seems that if we do get either of the two players mentioned within this article they could join Raul Jimenez in the squad pending the FA granting the Atletico Madrid forward a work permit.