Slaven Bilic has all but confirmed his interest in Marseille front man Michy Batshuayi.
The Hammers are in for a striker to boost their attacking front line this season and Dimitri Payet’s former teammate Batshuayi fits the bill for Slaven Bilic.
Writing in his column for the Evening Standard, Slaven Bilic highlighted the 22-year-old as a potential target:
“Yes, he is a very good player and I have known him for some time, since he played for Belgian club Standard Liege before going to France.
“We tried to sign him when I was at Besiktas but it was mission impossible at that time, partly because of the transfer fee but also because he wanted to stay closer to England, Germany or Spain.
“When he joined Marseille his game time was limited because Andre Pierre Gignac was also there. However since Gignac moved to Mexico last summer, Batshuayi has blossomed.”
The promising Belgian has been in superb form this season, scoring 12 goals and providing an impressive seven assists in 25 league games. The striker is contracted to the French side until 2020 and his asking price is set to increase if he carries on performing at this current level. He could be available for around £25 million this summer
Despite Batshuayi’s rich vein of form, Marseille are currently sitting in 11th place in Ligue 1 and are a massive 35 points adrift of top spot, occupied by Paris Saint-Germain. Batshuayi’s goal tally of twelve is exactly a third of Marseille’s total amount of goals scored in the league this season.
Only Zlatan Ibrahimovic (21 goals) is above Batashuayi in the goalscoring department and at just 22-years-old, he could be an excellent signing for West Ham if Slaven Bilic goes all out to secure his signature.
