So the deal IS on…
Slaven Bilic has confirmed the club are “quite close” to signing Valencia wonderkid Toni Martinez.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Crystal Palace, the Hammers boss admitted negotiations are ongoing for the 18-year-old, despite a number of reports claiming there was actually no interest surfacing last night – particularly from David Sullivan’s son, Dave, who insisted on Twitter that we weren’t going to sign him.
BILIC: "We are quite close to capturing Toni Martinez [of Valencia]. All other rumours in the paper are just speculation."
— West Ham United (@WestHam) March 31, 2016
It was being reported by Radio Taronja earlier this week that the Hammers were on the verge of signing the highly-rated youngster, who has scored over 100 goals for the Mestalla youth side over the last four seasons.
Following the reports we carried out some research in to what kind of striker we’d be getting in Martinez, and the results were promising.
For a reported fee of between 2.5 and 3 million euros, it appears we’d be getting a striker who fits the typical Spanish striker mould.
Martinez is strong, skilful, pacey and loves arriving in to the box late to meet service from out wide.
Have a read of our report on the exciting prospect here.
Additionally, Bilic claimed all the other transfer rumours linking us with players are just “speculation” thought it is no secret that the club are interesting in spending a large amount of their summer transfer kitty on a big name striker.
The fact the aforementioned report on our interest in Martinez claims the youngster wants a move away from Valencia due to a lack of first-team football, you’d have to assume we’ve assured him a role in our first team next season.
