West Ham United could do avoiding another ill-fitting centre-forward once Niclas Fullkrug departs, though Stuart Pearce will certainly be backing any pursuit of a striker he likens to the irrepressible Harry Kane.
Hammers News can confirm that Nuno Espirito Santo wants a striker signed in the January transfer window.
Niclas Fullkrug is not part of West Ham’s future plans, Fabrizio Romano reports. With only three goals and eleven Premier League starts, the £27 million acquisition from Borussia Dortmund seems destined to challenge Gianluca Scamacca, Simone Zaza and many, many more for a place on the club’s ‘worst striker signing’ podium.
Potential replacements, at least, are not in short supply. Though whether West Ham United can afford any of them, or would be able to attract any of them mid-season, remains to be seen.
Even then, there is the question of whether Joshua Zirkzee, Franculino Dju, Kaio Jorge, Romeo Vermant, Lucas Stassin or any of the other names mentioned could succeed where so many have failed.
Though Ivan Toney, even after a spell in Saudi Arabia, is about as close to a ‘sure thing’ as the Hammers could realistically get.
Stuart Pearce is a huge fan of what he deems are Toney’s Harry Kane-esque qualities. And, while Hammers News have been told that the Brentford icon is in no rush to leave Saudi Arabia, reporter Alan Nixon certainly believes that there are legs to a story which may yet see many chapters written.
Stuart Pearce explains why West Ham United-linked Ivan Toney is just like Harry Kane
Reporting a month ago, Nixon claimed that West Ham are ‘working on’ a deal for Ivan Toney. The club were reportedly looking into the finances of a potential January swoop, with a loan deal floated.
If the late-blooming former Newcastle man had reservations about a Premier League return, they might now have been replaced by a desire to force his way back into the England roster in time for the World Cup.
Toney was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad for the November international break.
Pearce feels that the 29-year-old still has a lot to offer the Three Lions, though. Should England lose Harry Kane for whatever reason, there is a shortage of reliable, in-form replacements right now. Toney may not be at his sharpest, playing against rather limited opposition in the Middle East.
But Pearce thinks that his ability to drop deep, hold up the ball and open up space for Tuchel’s many hard-running midfielders and waspish widemen makes Toney the best fit in a Kane-less scenario.
“I like Ivan Toney,” Pearce, who spent a combined seven years at West Ham as a player and as a coach, told talkSPORT. “You put some legs around Ivan Toney and he’s the closest thing, probably like-for-like type [England have] to Harry Kane in some ways.
“I think he can hold the ball up and allow the likes of [Declan] Rice and [Jude] Bellingham and [Morgan] Rogers to go past him, and allow wide players to get into the wide areas and cross it and get on the end of things in regard to that.”
Who would you pick to replace Niclas Fullkrug at West Ham?
Declan Rice will agree with Pearce’s Kane comparisons
This is not the first time comparisons have been made between Toney and Kane.
“He’s kind of like Harry Kane in a way,” former Hammers captain Declan Rice also told talkSPORT, back in 2022. “He’s not only an out-and-out striker, he’s a playmaker as well.
“His left and right footed passing, the way he picks out his teammates is a special technique to have.”
Toney finished that 2022/23 season with five assists to his name, as well as a career-high 20 Premier League goals. He has 49 in 58 appearances for Al-Ahli, meanwhile, since that £40 million move from perennial-overachievers and occasional diamond-spotters Brentford.
Could Callum Marshall become West Ham’s next number nine?
Speaking of Harry Kane, West Ham’s Lead Professional Development Coach believes Callum Marshall shares similarities with the Bayern Munich talisman, too.
While it may be too soon in the 20-year-old Marshall’s career to ask him to lead the line in Fullkrug’s absence, the future looks bright for him in claret and blue.
“There’s a poacher instinct to him,” Keen told The Standard in October. “His goal in the Youth Cup final [when West Ham battered Arsenal 5-1 in 2023] sums it up. From probably about three or four yards, he’s got between bodies and volleyed it in.
“He’s also got that ability to score from near the edge of the box, a little bit like Harry Kane hits those low shots into far corners.”
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