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Reports on Friday claimed that former Hammers boss Sam Allerdyce and his club Sunderland have tabled a £6million bid with £5million in add-ons for Diafra Sakho, which was immediately rejected by West Ham and named a ‘joke offer’.

But the question is, should we sell Diafra Sakho if the right money came in?

After reading through Twitter there seems to be no clear view on the situation. Many fans believe Sakho isn’t the ’20 goal a season striker’ the club are looking for and the immediate £6million we would receive could be put forward to fund the price of the perfect striker we are looking at.

Others say that Sakho is brilliant to have alongside any one of the strikers we’ve been linked with so far this summer. The likes of Carlos Bacca, Wissam Ben Yedder and Alexandre Lacazette are rumoured to be on our wish list, among others.

Personally, I love Sakho. I’ve met and briefly spoken with him several times before games and he seems very humble and seems to be happy to spend time with the fans, which I and many other fans admire.

Secondly, his work rate and goal scoring ability is immense and he is incredibly talented with the ball on the ground and in the air. He seems passionate about West Ham but after an apparent ‘bust-up’ with boss Slaven Bilic for not turning up at a meet and greet event, relations don’t seem the same between the pair and news broke that Slav was looking to offload the forward shortly afterwards.

Sakho’s main problem is that he is incredibly injury prone. If he is able to keep himself fit then he would have many more goals to his name than he currently has.

If Billic was to play Sakho up front in a two striker formation, with somebody like Carlos Bacca or Wissam Ben Yedder, he would be very effective, like he was in the early 2014/15 season alongside Enner Valencia. This is one reason why I believe we should keep Sakho at the club.

Another reason is that we need to increase our squad size and depth heading into the Europa League. Participating in Europe is a big step for the club, both financially and the developing transition we are experiencing right now.

But European competition means we will be playing extra games and that means extra minutes for our players. By increasing our squad depth and quality we will slowly be building the foundations for a successful campaign, both in the domesticly and in Europe.

The issue we face is that we must try to keep as many players happy as we can. Sakho most probably will not be satisfied with a place on the bench if we manage to complete the signing of another striker this summer, but by having a good goal scorer to fall back on in Sakho and a mastermind of impact substitutions in Slaven Bilic, a Diafra Sakho goal from the bench could be very useful.

I’m sure Sakho will be sometimes used alongside a better striker such as Bacca or Ben Yedder but he still will get an occasional full 90 minutes in cup fixtures or games after a Europa League outing if our players are tired or injured.

A fee in the range of £15-20million would be incredible and Im sure the club would take consideration of the circumstances but, personally, I believe Sakho will play a key role in our extended season with extra fixtures.

I am interested to hear your views so feel free to tweet me and leave your opinions – @LouisFrench12.

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