OPINION
West Ham can make eyes water by splashing the cash on Genoa forward Christian Kouame as it would be a huge leap of faith for them to take.
According to Calciomercato, the Hammers and Everton are in the race to sign the 21-year-old attacker and are willing to pay the 30million euros (£25.8million) it would take to sign him.
If the Hammers won the race for Kouame it would lead to eyebrows being raised as £25.8million is a lot of money to invest in a young forward who isn’t exactly hitting it out the park.
The 21-year-old has only managed four goals in 28 league appearances this season, and while he has shown glimpses of his fantastic dribbling as well as passing ability, surely it’s not enough to see a club spend big on him.
Kouame has the potential to be a success in the Premier League but there’s lots of players around the world like that; and ones with a better current track record.
The Hammers definitely need a new attacker to arrive in the summer, so from that perspective their desire for Kouame makes sense, but that’s the only logic in the potential move.
However while Kouame isn’t in tremendous form in front of goal or has Premier League experience to suggest he could be a handful in England, that doesn’t mean he could excel.
For example the Hammers took a risk on signing Fabian Balbuena in the summer from Brazilian side Corinthians and he hadn’t exactly looked like being a guaranteed success in England ahead of joining.
Yet the 27-year-old has turned out to be one of the club’s best recent acquisition, whereas Lucas Perez, who had Premier League experience before joining, has flopped.
With all this in mind eyes could water out of fear of the Hammers taking a costly gamble on Kouame as it would be a leap of faith, but there’s no saying it would be the wrong move when the dust settles.
