Two West Ham targets seriously impressed as technical director Tim Steidten watches on amid talk of bids being readied.
West Ham are believed to be tracking at least four players who are in action at Euro 2024.
Tim Steidten has spent much of the summer so far over in Brazil working on various deals.
One of those eventually came off with West Ham signing Luis Guilherme from Palmeiras.
West Ham’s search for signings has taken the club’s technical director back to familiar territory now.
Hammers insider Sean Whetstone revealed that Steidten is now back in his homeland Germany watching players at the Euros.
With goalkeeper Wes Foderingham coming in on a free transfer, West Ham are looking to find six more signings.
A top spokesman inside West Ham has told Hammers News that Max Kilman is one of a number of players the club is bidding for.
West Ham have at least four targets on Steidten’s watchlist while at the Euros in Germany.
Now West Ham cast net over Euros
They include of Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori, Belgium centre-back Zeno Debast, France midfielder Youssouf Fofana and Spain attacker Ferran Torres.
Well two West Ham targets seriously impressed as Steidten watches on amid bid talk.
New Hammers head coach Julen Lopetegui wants to sign two new centre-backs this summer.
The Spaniard has elected to sell Kurt Zouma while Nayef Aguerd wants out and is for sale too.
That will leave West Ham with only Konstantinos Mavropanos, making central defence a top priority – hence the interest in Kilman.
A player the club reportedly want to try and pair Kilman with his Bologna’s left-footed star Calafiori.
Calafiori enjoyed a superb season helping unfancied Bologna into the Champions League.
That has seen West Ham and a host of others approach Bologna about signing the 22-year-old.
Two West Ham targets impress as Steidten watches on
Italy looked set for a wait to see if they could qualify for the knockouts as one of the four best third-placed sides when they trailed Croatia 1-0 last night.
But Calafiori – described as a hybrid defender given his great ability on the ball – showed all that and more as he surged up the pitch, burst through the middle and set up Mattia Zaccagni for a stunning equaliser with the last kick of the game on 99 minutes.
The West Ham target was the standout player on the pitch as Steidten watches the performances of his four known targets and more whose names have not yet made it into the media.
Calafiori laid on one assist, 61 passes, had a 93% pass accuracy, played three key passes, made one big chance, one key interception, five clearances, won both his aerial duels and three of his five duels on the deck in a man of the match display.
He was not the only alleged West Ham target to shine last night.
Steidten may be good at his job but he can’t be in two places at once.
So it is not clear which of last night’s matches he physically attended.
But he would have undoubtedly had one of his Hammers scouting network at the game he didn’t attend.
Hammers target Torres gets landmark Spain goal
Last week it emerged West Ham have approached Barcelona about bringing Ferran Torres back to the Premier League.
Barca are said to be keen to sell to raise funds in order to buy Joao Cancelo permanently.
Well Torres did not disappoint Steidten or his watching Hammers colleagues.
He scored the only goal of the game as Spain cruised through with a perfect record.
The former Man City attacker found himself on the right side of the box and fired home on his left foot.
He may not have had his best game besides the goal but the strike did see him reach a major milestone.
Because it was the West Ham target’s 20th goal for Spain. Only 25 players can count more than 20 goals for their national team and Torres is the youngest at 24 years old.
The obvious problem for Steidten and West Ham is that the better these targets do at the Euros, the more likely it is there will be stiff competition to sign them.
And the more likely their prices will rise out of West Ham’s budget.
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