West Ham were linked with Manchester United outcast Marcus Rashford but now another Red Devil is allegedly on their radar.
- Hammers News exclusive
West Ham’s search for a striker in the winter window saw Marcus Rashford heavily linked with a loan move to the London Stadium.
A Sky Sports reporter who is close with the son of West Ham majority owner David Sullivan revealed the Hammers were in the mix for Rashford after he was frozen out at Manchester United by Ruben Amorim.
In the end, though, Graham Potter pushed for the club to sign Evan Ferguson on loan from Brighton.
Having sold Jhon Duran for £65m, flush Aston Villa got Rashford on loan – picking up the vast majority of his whopping £300k per week wages.
West Ham’s board have faced criticism for the lack of activity in January.
Although Potter has since claimed it was he resisting making signings for the sake of it.
The Hammers boss insists he would prefer to wait and get the right players and characters in the summer.
Ferguson has only joined West Ham on a straight loan deal.
So West Ham will have to revisit the striker situation again in the summer regardless.
Man United star’s wish emerges after shock West Ham link
Because Danny Ings is out of contract, Niclas Fullkrug was expected to depart in January until his latest injury and Michail Antonio – who is also out of contract as things stand – faces an uncertain future.
Manchester United will be going through their own rebuild under Amorim in the summer.
A striker is also top of the priority list at Old Trafford.
After shipping out Rashford, Amorim sent a message to the Glazers and INEOS by playing midfielder Kobbie Mainoo up front ahead of £70m Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee in the 2-0 home defeat to Palace.
Since then West Ham have been linked with yet another Red Devils outcast.
A claim emerged after the window closed that West Ham will move for Hojlund if they can’t or don’t sign Ferguson in the summer.
Now the Man United star’s wish emerges after the shock link with a summer move to West Ham.
Hammers News has spoken to a top journalist source about the claims Hojlund could join the Hammers.
Hojlund to West Ham talk dismissed
And cold water has been poured on the link.
The source, who is well connected at West Ham and Manchester United, shot down the claim.
“I haven’t heard anything about West Ham interest in Hojlund, I’ll be honest,” the source told Hammers News.
“From what I understand Hojlund wants to go back to Italy.”
It seems summer silly season has started earlier than ever with this one.
Although it’s not the first time Hojlund has been linked with West Ham.
The Hammers were reportedly interested in the 22-year-old when he was at Atalanta, before signing for Man United.
A report from 90Min at the time claimed then Hammers boss David Moyes was keen to sign Hojlund – who was being dubbed ‘the new Erling Haaland’.
Hammers at striker crossroads in the summer
In the end Man United blew everyone else out of the water with their move.
Ironically that directly resulted in Atalanta being able to afford to pay West Ham £27.5m to bring Gianluca Scamacca back to Italy after just one season in east London.
Hojlund had actually only scored 10 goals in 34 appearances for Atalanta before Man United’s big money gamble.
He has a record of 23 goals in 73 games for the Red Devils in the two seasons since.
His overall career record stands at a ratio of one goal just over every three games.
But it seems there is no substance to claims the Manchester United forward is West Ham’s back-up plan for Ferguson.
The Hammers are expected to sign young Celtic striker Daniel Cummings, though, having reportedly agreed a pre-contract with the 18-year-old.
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