West Ham have made a move for a striker ahead of January’s start, with injury-prone Niklas Furkrug vying for a spot at the London Stadium, according to new reports.
Flukrug’s time at West Ham was marked by injury woes more than his impact on the pitch. Persistent fitness issues have severely limited his ability to achieve the goals West Ham had hoped for when they signed him.
Having arrived with high expectations as a striker who could add much-needed firepower, especially after scoring 16 goals in all competitions in his final season at Borussia Dortmund, Furkrug’s tenure was marred by repeated setbacks.
The 32-year-old, who cost West Ham chairman David Sullivan and others around £27m to sign in the summer of 2024, missed 28 games for club and country last season due to injury.
Matches Niklas Furkrug missed in West Ham and Germany — 2024/2025 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
injury | missing from | missing until | Games missed |
achilles tendon | 2024/08/09 | February 12, 2024 | 16 |
hamstring injury | 2025/11/01 | April 1, 2025 | 12 |
Critics such as Gabriel Agbonlahor and many others have ended up questioning West Ham’s bizarre decision to invest so much money in a forward over 30 with physical problems.
“I think it’s not about how much money you spend, but what you spend it on,” Agbonlahor told talkSPORT.
“They signed Niklas Flukrug for a good deal close to £30m. He runs like he has no butt. He can’t walk around the pitch. To be honest, what a terrible deal. Sure, he did well at the Euros, but for me he’s not a good enough player. It was a strange signing.”
Fortunately for Nuno Espirito Santo, a reliable club official, an ExWHU employee, has claimed that Furkrug is due to return after the next international break and is in fact recovering faster than expected.
However, injuries have been too frequent for West Ham and Nuno has been tasked with recovering from them recently.
The Portuguese featured in West Ham’s Premier League defeats to Brentford and Leeds as a false nine alongside Lucas Paqueta, filling in for Flukrug, but Callum Wilson was given a starting place in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Newcastle.
Sources have suggested that Nuno does not actually like West Ham’s Wilson, but apart from inexperienced youngster Callum Marshall, there are few options left for him to be his only natural striker.
West Ham’s lack of striker options has led to reliable reports that they are looking to sign another centre-forward, plus a defender and midfielder in January (Sky Sports).
West Ham inform Ivan Toney of Niklas Fürkrug’s ‘decision’ to leave club
Now, according to TEAMtalk, there has been an update on the pursuit of Al Ahly striker Ivan Toni.
Journalist Alan Nixon previously reported that West Ham were still in contention with the Hammers to sign Toney ahead of January.
The 29-year-old is preparing for a tough battle to break into Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for next summer’s World Cup, and has been largely omitted from the Three Lions’ squad since moving to Saudi Arabia.
Toney has only been called up once in that time and with the 2026 US tournament looming, he could well be tempted by the possibility of returning to England.
Al Ahly want around £30 million to part ways permanently in the winter, an offer that no one is willing to pay at the moment, so the most likely solution is to buy on loan.
Still, the Irons will have to find a way around Toney’s hefty salary of more than £400,000-a-week in the Bay Area.
Despite this, TEAMtalk claim that West Ham have approached Toney about a possible move in January, but they are not the only ones considering Tottenham and Everton.
All of this comes as Flukrug has been described as having “decided” to leave the club midway through the season after what has been a nightmare year-and-a-half stay.
According to Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, the centre-forward has already informed West Ham of his decision and the signing of the striker will undoubtedly make him a player to watch in January.