West Ham United could be interested in a deal to bring Ludovic Ajorque to the London Stadium this summer.
What’s the talk?
That’s according to Kevin Solhekol, with the reporter revealing in a recent update on the Sky Sports Transfer Centre (01/08, 20:56) that West Ham’s scouts were one of a number of Premier League representatives in attendance for RC Strasbourg’s 3-0 pre-season victory over Liverpool on Sunday – with the centre-forward believed to be the focus of the club’s gaze.
The reporter went on to state that Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton, Leicester City, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, AFC Bournemouth and Newcastle United also sent scouts to cast an eye over the 28-year-old – who is said to be available for a figure in the region of £18m this summer.
Regarding the interest in the striker, Solhekol said: “A player who we could be hearing a lot more from in the next couple of weeks played against Liverpool for Strasbourg at the weekend. He’s a striker called Ludovic Ajorque – a 6ft 6in striker with a very good scoring record and is available for £18m.
“I’m told the clubs that watched him yesterday were Wolves, Everton, Leicester, West Ham, Fulham, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Newcastle. He’s someone we might be hearing a lot more from.”
Imagine him & Scamacca
With West Ham having already secured the £35.5m signing of Gianluca Scamacca this summer, the prospect of Moyes also going on to add Ajorque to his attacking arsenal ahead of the Hammers’ 2022/23 campaign will undoubtedly be an incredibly tantalising thought for all involved with the east London side.
Indeed, the £14.4m-rated Frenchman was in astonishing form over his 36 Ligue 1 appearances for Strasbourg last season, scoring 12 goals, registering eight assists and creating 11 big chances for his teammates, in addition to taking an average of 1.6 shots – 0.8 of which hit the target – making 1.3 key passes and winning 5.9 duels per game.
These returns saw the £14k-per-week talent who Julien Stephan dubbed both “remarkable” and “complete” average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.10, ranking the 6 foot 6 giant as the joint 31st-best player in the entirety of the French top flight last time out.
As such, the prospect of the 28-year-old lining up alongside the 6 foot 5 Italy international – who scored an arguably even more impressive 16 goals over 36 Serie A appearances for US Sassuolo last season – in Moyes’ attack next season is sure to be a terrifying thought for Premier League defenders up and down the country.
This, coupled with Solhekol’s claim that Ajorque is available for an extremely reasonable £18m fee this summer, leads us to believe that Rob Newman must do everything he can to form what would certainly be both a remarkable and incredibly aerially threatening duo at the London Stadium ahead of the new Premier League season.