West Ham will have to pay £35m if they want to buy Alexander Sorloth from Villarreal, according to insider ExWHUEmployee.

Speaking on the West Ham Way podcast (quotes via their website), Ex said there are question marks over whether the Hammers would be prepared to pay the necessary fee in order to secure the striker’s signature:

“We have listed many targets before and West Ham do intend to narrow this list down however one name to add to it is Sorloth. The 6’5 striker plays alongside Erling Haaland for the Norwegian national team and had a great season in La Liga last year.”

“There is a lot of competition for the player and he is said to be valued at around the £35m mark. The club may consider this to be too much for a player who had struggle in a previous spell in the Premier League for Crystal Palace and is also 29 next season. The club hope to add a forward who is a good mix of price, quality and potential so are thinking carefully about the next move.”

Why is Sorloth so expensive?

As Ex mentions, fans may remember the Norwegian for his poor spell at Crystal Palace. He scored just 1 goal in 20 appearances for the Eagles.

However, Sorloth has scored plenty of goals since leaving England, bagging 33 in one season at Turkish Super Lig side Trabzonspor, before hitting double figures during a loan spell at Real Sociedad.

Last season was undoubtedly his most impressive season to date, finishing on 23 goals in Spain’s top flight for Villarreal (bagging 26 in all competitions).

Are West Ham looking at other strikers?

Technical director Tim Steidten seems to have made enquiries for dozens of players over the last couple of months. It’s actually hard to list all of the forwards that have been linked with transfers to the London Stadium in recent weeks.

The leading candidates (in addition to Sorloth) are expected to be Brentford’s Ivan Toney, Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesryi and Lille’s Jonathan David.

Find out who is in West Ham’s first-team squad for 2024/2025 season here