Slaven Bilic pulls plug on West Ham move for Scott Hogan
Thursday 7 November 2019 13:17, UK
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has revealed he pulled out of a deal to sign Brentford forward Scott Hogan due to the attacking options already at his disposal.
The Hammers refused to match Brentford's £15m valuation of the 24-year-old, who has 18 months remaining on his contract at the Sky Bet Championship club.
In-form Andy Carroll is currently leading the line for West Ham, while Bilic revealed he expects long-term absentee Diafra Sakho to return to first-team action in mid-March.
Andre Ayew is also set to return to the club in February having been on international duty with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations.
"He [Scott] is a good player, of course he is a good player. We watched him for many, many games," Bilic said.
"But I believe that we have really good strikers in our squad and that's why we won't have a Hogan deal.
"Definitely a good player, good age and scoring goals in the Championship. It's not a question of him, it's a question of what we've already got in the squad. "
Bilic also confirmed West Ham had ended their pursuit for a new right-back and that young central defender Reece Oxford is set to join Championship side Reading on loan having previously attracted interest from Rangers.
"We were maybe after a right-back but we couldn't find someone who could improve our starting XI. That's why we haven't got one," he added.
"Hopefully Reece Oxford will go on loan to Reading today. The manager [Jaap Stam] there was really important for me in that decision."
