OPINION
West Ham should be having second thoughts about ignoring their chance to sign AC Milan attacker Andre Silva as he’s now available at a lower price.
Claret & Hugh previously claimed that the Hammers were offered the opportunity to sign the 6ft tall centre-forward (Source: Transfermarkt), who was at that time valued at £27million, but then no move was reported as being made.
Based on this it seemed like Manuel Pellegrini rejected the chance to get Silva, but he should change his tune now his price has dropped.
L’Equipe reported on Tuesday that Silva looked on course to join AS Monaco but he failed his medical due to a knee injury which saw him miss the last seven league games of his latest campaign while on loan at Sevilla (Source: Transfermarkt).
The French news outlet claimed that Silva failing his medical hadn’t completely killed a deal though, as AC Milan had now dropped their valuation of Silva after his knee issue scuppered their originally agreed £23.7million deal.
While normally failing a medical should put clubs off, when you consider that AC Milan still feel a deal can be agreed with Monaco, it must mean his knee injury isn’t so bad that the French club have been sent running to the hills.
So the Hammers should seriously be considering hijacking the deal and getting Silva for themselves as with him now potentially available at a lower price, he could be the ideal forward to sign.
After all, Pellegrini still needs to bolster his firepower, despite there being only nine days left of the transfer window, after saying goodbye to Marko Arnautovic, Andy Carroll and Lucas Perez this summer, while only welcoming Sebastien Heller.
Silva scored nine goals in 27 league outings while on loan at Sevilla last season, and impressively averaged 2.3 shots per game while also winning 1.5 aerial duels per game (Source: WhoScored).
The attacker, averaged a goal every 240 minutes, and that’s not too shabby when you consider that 56% of his shots hit the target. (Source: BBC Sport)
Aside from Silva coming off a decent season, which could have been better without the frustrating knee injury, surely the Hammers should be seeingg if their chance to sign him is still available to accept especially when you consider he is only 23-years-old.