•  West Ham are preparing a bid of £28m to sign a new striker.
•  Such a move would provide an opportunity for David Moyes to offload wantaway forward Michail Antonio.
•  The players the Hammers could sign scored an impressive 19 times last season.

West Ham United’s Premier League campaign is well underway after taking a point away from their opening game against Bournemouth, and now the club are stepping up their pursuit of a transfer target.

What’s the latest West Ham transfer news?

According to popular French news outlet L’Equipe, West Ham are preparing a bid in the region of €33m (£28m) to sign Montpellier striker Elye Wahi this summer.

As per the report, the Hammers are competing with fellow Premier League and London club Chelsea for the centre-forward’s signature, however, West Ham have the upper hand as Chelsea are claimed to be in slow in their approach.

It is further noted that West Ham are going to submit their first offer soon.

Will Michail Antonio leave West Ham?

Huge changes have taken place in the West Ham squad this summer after winning the Europa Conference League just a few months ago, and David Moyes will be hoping that the departures both confirmed and imminent will not affect his team’s ability to compete.

Declan Rice, Gianluca Scamacca and Manuel Lanzini have all moved on from east London, however, now Lucas Paqueta is being tempted with an attractive move to treble-winners Manchester City, whilst Michail Antonio is keen to move on.

It was reported by Football Transfers earlier this month that the all-time top-scorer for West Ham would like to end his eight-year stint and move on to a new challenge this summer, with both Leeds United and Celtic named as potential suitors.

As a result, the signing of Wahi would present an opportunity for Moyes to finally offload the wantaway striker, as the young talent would add huge quality and plenty of goal contributions in the wake of Antonio’s prospective exit.

How good is Elye Wahi?

Over 33 Ligue 1 appearances last season, the 20-year-old scored 19 goals, registered five assists and created seven big chances, as well as averaging 1.9 shots on goal per game, proving that he is a real threat in the final third.

Not only that, the impressive goal machine was one of the stand-out performers across the French top-flight – ranking as the seventh top goal-scorer, fourth for non-penalty goals while he also had the highest percentage of shots on target throughout the 2022/23 season, as per FBref.

The Montpellier talent has been the recipient of high praise over his short career so far, with journalist Josh Bunting waxing lyrical about the youngster in the past, saying:

“Excited to see Wahi play this season, a magnificent young talent who reads the game so well.”

With that being said, it would be a no-brainer for the Irons to secure a deal for Wahi this summer and if he could emulate his incredible form in front of goal last season in the Premier League and Europa League this season, it would show there is certainly no longer any need for Antonio.