Sky Sports have confirmed today that Crystal Palace have agreed a £11m deal for West Ham’s Diafra Sakho, however Football Insider’s Dean Jones claims that ourselves and West Brom have made ‘late moves’ to hijack the deal.
It was reported earlier in the week that we had a loan bid rejected for the Senegalese striker, and although it was suggested that the Hammers wouldn’t sell to a relegation rival, this seems untrue given they could be about to sell him to Crystal Palace – a side below us in the league.
Newcastle and West Brom have made late moves to beat Crystal Palace to signing of Diafra Sakho
— Dean Jones (@DeanJonesBR) January 11, 2018
Given Sakho’s injury record of late, there may be better deals available to us this month, however beggars can’t be choosers. He’d certainly give us another option and has proven in the past that he’s capable of scoring goals in the top flight.
Sky claim he is set to undergo a medical at Selhurst Park, so a deal does seem to be edging closer for Roy Hodgson, but it will be interesting to see if there’s any movement on that front after claims that ourselves and West Brom will attempt to hijack the deal at the 11th hour.
In all honesty, I’m not counting my chickens. £11m seems a reasonable and realistic fee to pay, but are we even in the market for permanent signings if Benitez still doesn’t know his budget?!
Sakho won’t be a player we lose sleep on should he end up at Palace, but I’d like to bet he would’ve bagged a few goals should we have made a move. Time will tell.
