Daily Mail

BILIC EYES MOVE FOR VILLA’S AYEW

- SIMON JONES

WEST HAM are considerin­g a £6million summer move for Aston Villa forward Jordan Ayew. Manager Slaven Bilic wants two new strikers for next season with Diafra Sakho to be made available for sale. Recruitmen­t staff have drawn up a list that includes Marseille’s Michy Batshuayi, Alexandre Lacazette of Lyon, Wilfried Bony of Manchester City and Liverpool’s Christian Benteke. None of those would come cheaply but Bilic has a list of support strikers too, with Ayew and Racing Club striker Gustavo Bou among them. Bilic has been impressed with how 24-year-old Ayew has often foraged for goals with little support at Villa and believes he will benefit greatly by linking up with former Marseille team-mate Dimitri Payet. Ayew joined Villa from Lorient for £9.6m but West Ham would hope to prise him away for less than that. Bou is a 26-year-old Argentinia­n forward who has scored 29 goals in 46 games for Racing and is available for around £5.6m. Sakho, meanwhile, is ready to leave after being overlooked for a new contract when he picked up an injury earlier in the season and expressing his frustratio­n after being dropped for the weekend draw with Arsenal.

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