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Brentford striker Scott Hogan is expected to sign for West Ham this week.

The 24-year-old has scored 14 goals for the Championship club this season and has attracted the attention of a number of others clubs.

We desperately need to sign a goalscorer this month, despite the recent goalscoring form of Andy Carroll. However, despite rumours suggesting a deal could be done this week, it’s not yet clear whether a deal will eventually get over the line.

Just like Cheltenham Festival odds, the chances of us signing him differ depending on where you look.

Scott Hogan represents an interesting option for us, despite not having any Premier League experience. The club has had success with buying players from the Championship in recent seasons – Michail Antonio and Aaron Cresswell have both stepped up to the big league seamlessly.

While there is the need for a striker to come in a hit the ground running, dipping our toes back in to Championship for talent may prove to be a clever decision, and Hogan does stand out as an attractive candidate.

The lad is quick and clinical, and his success at Brentford this season is representative of Brentford’s famous money-ball approach to player recruitment. His move from Rochdale to Brentford in 2014/15 will have been as a result of extensive scouting and statistical analysis from the Bees. He has scored 21 goals in 33 Championship appearances since.

But how would he fit in at West Ham? You have him either playing off Andy Carroll up top, or you use him as part of a front four that consists of the likes of Manuel Lanzini, Michail Antonio and Sofiane Feghouli.

All of Hogan’s 14 league goals this season have come from inside the 12-yard box, which demonstrates his fox-in-the-box style of play.

He is also very capable of creating chances. He has created 15 chances in the Championship so far this term, one of which resulted in a goal. That may not sound a lot but for a player who tends to spend most of his time on the final defender and getting inside the opposition penalty box, but it’s not bad going either.

It’s Hogan’s clinical instinct that would give us something extra, though. He has a 69% shot accuracy this term with a 24.1% conversion rate.

With someone as clinical as that playing in front of creative midfielders like Lanzini and Antonio, goals would surely start flowing even more than they have done in recent weeks.

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