As we close in on the month of January, there is a lot of talk regarding strikers and who we should sign. Two Championship names seem to be in the frame. 

West Ham United simply have to sign a striker next month to help our bid to stay in the Premier League.

According to our very own ExWHUEmployee, striker is the priority position for the club, and Nuno wants to sign someone based domestically, meaning the Premier League or the Championship.

This has led to two main transfer stories, which likely have legs, as we have been interested in both of them previously. The two names in question are Haji Wright of Coventry and Josh Sargent of Norwich City, two USA internationals.

Both players have had decent seasons in the second tier so far. Wright has scored 8 goals and provided 1 assist in 17 matches as Coventry sit top of the table. It’s been a different story for Norwich, who are 23rd in the table. Sargent has scored 6 goals and made 3 assists in 20 matches.

Neither of their records are much to get excited about; they aren’t exactly setting the world alight, but maybe that’s what we need, we need a steady striker who’s going to be available and score a few goals because we don’t have that at the moment.

Callum Wilson has been a complete positive shock since arriving at the club. He’s been great when he’s played, but the fact is, he can’t play much, and we’ve seen and been frustrated by that in recent matches.

Out of the two options, Haji Wright is by far the standout. Despite not putting up the numbers we’re used to from the best Championship strikers like Ivan Toney and Aleksandar Mitrovic in the past, he is awesome.

Wright is a transitional monster; he is capable of stretching defences on his own, isolating them, and carrying attacks with long, powerful strides. He can run behind, drive at defenders, and finish with confidence; he has shown exactly that in Coventry.

Wright would completely suit our style of play; he would be an absolute menace in a counter-attacking team with his pace, directness, and finishing. He isn’t the most polished and naturally gifted of players, but that’s not what we need to spearhead Nuno’s attack. What we need is someone like Michail Antonio with better finishing to run our attack, and to be honest, Wright wouldn’t be far away from that.

As for Josh Sargent, I, like many other Hammers fans, am not quite as keen on the Norwich City man compared to Wright and some of the other options we’ve been linked with, like Promise David. He doesn’t have the strength and power or the ability to attack on his own that we will need a lot in a relegation battle, and playing Nuno’s style.

I actually think Haji Wright would be an excellent option for the Hammers, and is definitely the best and realistic option for us next month. However, I say ‘realistic’ because they are in the League below. The fact is, it will be very difficult to get Wright out of Coventry as they chase the league title. It will cost a lot, probably more than we have to spend on a striker, so we may have to look elsewhere.