West Ham in pole position to land “devastating” £30m “machine”, he can be Payet 2.0 - opinion

West Ham United have been handed a boost in their bid to sign Chelsea striker Armando Broja…

As per talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook, the Hammers are not set to be joined in the race for the 20-year-old’s signature by fellow Premier League outfit Southampton, despite the Albania international having impressed on loan at St Mary’s last season.

Writing on Twitter about the forward’s future, the transfer insider revealed that the potential financial package has put the Saints off, meaning the Irons are now in pole to secure his signature: “Understand #SaintsFC are not competing with #WHUFC for Armando Broja. They view wages and transfer fee as too high. Don’t think his form in the second half of the season helped either.”

This follows reports that GSB are set to make a £30m offer to the Blues for their academy product, albeit with possible involvement in Thomas Tuchel’s first-team squad next term at Stamford Bridge having also been mooted.

David Moyes and co have seemingly identified the highly-rated prospect as the man to solve their centre-forward woes, with the £19.8m-rated ace having caught the eye during that spell on the south coast, netting nine times in all competitions in what was his first full, Premier League campaign.

Prior to that, Broja had spent a year on loan with Dutch outfit Vitesse Arnhem during the 2020/21 season – netting 11 times in all competitions – while he’s made just a solitary first-team appearance at his parent club, with that coming under Frank Lampard over two years ago.

That relative lack of experience may be a concern, although his eyecatching form under Ralph Hasenhuttl has illustrated just what a talent he is, with the £8.5k-per-week brute having been dubbed “devastating” by his national team