Opinion: West Ham should attempt to hijack Southampton’s Che Adams deal

Southampton are expected to sign Che Adams from Birmingham City for £14million, according to the Telegraph, but West Ham should aim to hijack the deal.

The report claims that Adams currently favours a move to the south coast, with Burnley said to also be very interested in him.

Though with West Ham currently completely out of the picture, it is unknown whether he would be tempted to make a London Stadium move.

The Hammers should test how much Adams wants to join Southampton, as £14million for a 22-year-old who scored 22 Championship goals last season could be a bargain in the current climate.

On top of the number of goals, Adams has shown he can score a wide variety of them – having hit some wonderful strikes from outside the box throughout the season, as well as notching some predatory ones from close range.

He also has the work rate and composure to capitalise on any mistakes made by the opposition, as he proved twice in one game against Hull City.

His main strengths are cited on WhoScored as being through balls and long shots.

While this shouldn’t be the only striker the Hammers move for, Adams could be a brilliant option for West Ham if they were to sign him.

Having another quality striker come in – such as Maxi Gómez who is the club’s top target, as reported by ExWHUEmployee – would result in healthy competition taking place for the striker position – which would likely push the pair on.

Whether this would see Marko Arnautovic leave is unknown, but if it did happen, the Hammers would likely make a fair amount of profit on the deal, with Daily Star having reported the Hammers have already received a bid of £30million for the Austrian.

It would also be a negative for Southampton, who could rival the Hammers in the 2019/20 Premier League table, which would make the signing even more satisfying.

It is important to make clear that West Ham have not been linked with a move for Che Adams and he is still expected to complete his move to Southampton, but that doesn’t mean to say Manuel Pellegrini should not be considering a late move to hijack the deal.