West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola knows he faces stiff competition to sign Barcelona striker Eidur Gudjohnsen but remains determined to bolster his attacking options before the start of the season.
Gudjohnsen has expressed a desire to leave the Nou Camp due to a lack of first-team football and the 30-year-old will not be short of potential suitors.
"Gudjohnsen is one of the players that has been linked with West Ham," Zola said. "He is one of those players that not only West Ham would be interested in."
The Hammers will be hoping for some positive news in the transfer market after they were dealt a blow on Wednesday when Luis Boa Morte suffered a knee injury against Tottenham in the Barclays Asia Trophy which is likely to rule him out for the rest of the year.
Zola is all too aware he needs to increase his attacking options following a rather placid display at Beijing Workers' Stadium, where they lost 1-0 to Spurs following Jermain Defoe's 75th-minute strike.
And the Italian reiterated his desire to bring former Chelsea forward Gudjohnsen to the club.
"We know we need to be more effective going forward and so we are looking for a striker," he added.
"We don't know who it will be but hopefully someone will come."
Boa Morte's injury is undoubtedly a setback to the Hammers' aspirations this coming season as they look to improve on their ninth-place finish last term.
"Luis is still here with us (in Beijing) and will stay with us until the end and come back to England before visiting some specialists in London," said Zola. "The problem looks like it is confirmed to his right knee and we are talking about cruciate ligaments but we will see when we get back to London."
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gudjohnsen would rock the hammers
Stoke. You can have Ashton -Give us Etherington back and we'll give you £1m to take him.
Am I the only person worried about the sale of Ashton? Gudjohnsen is a good player, but what he offers is different from Ashton. If West Ham are not careful, they're going to get bullied out of games next season... And although he's injury-prone, Ashton is the only attacking player at West Ham who can really put himself about. Gudjohnsen won't bring that to the side. I would just ask Gianfranco to think again...
Well we haven't spent a penny yet this season, while Hughes is buying anything with a pulse. With only 2 weeks 2 go, GZ needs to get his skates on. In the last 2 weeks of August prices will go even more crazy.
Talk of Gudjohnson and Luca Toni, but there's been talk of Gudjohnson for a twelvemonth !!
comment 2. no we wont miss boa morte will we hahahahahahahaha lol and i hope we get gudjonson as well a gr8 player with expirience up the hammers
as an arsenal fan i always had a small bit of pity for gudjohnsen. he is a very good player who is well able to finish but he spent a lot of his career at chelsea on the bench. when he moved to barca it was the same story. i think he should move to west ham to play regular first team football and become somewhat of a legend there. best of luck to both gugjohnsen and west ham next season (just not against arsenal haha)
As a Chelsea fan you would be getting a hard working player with Gudjohnsen - Shame we sold him
To be honest i wish he comes to Everton, but hey i am not the manager.
A nice move...
Buy Gudjonsen and then sell us (Stoke) Ashton on the cheap. (please)
Hope we get him, dont think we'll miss Boa Morte much though.
i think this willbe a good buy and i think we will get him
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