West Ham United eventually managed to strengthen their squad significantly in the summer transfer window.
It was a summer characterised by inactivity, as their signing of Tomas Soucek on a permanent deal was not followed up on for quite some time.
They ended the window with something of a trolley dash, bringing in Said Benrahma from Brentford, Craig Dawson from Watford and Vladimir Coufal from Slavia Prague.
The deals eventually brought some depth to the Hammers squad, and ensured they replaced Grady Diangana after his controversial departure to West Bromwich Albion.
But they did not manage to bring in a striker.
That failure has been compounded by an injury sustained by Michail Antonio and has sharpened the focus somewhat on the lack of depth beyond the Englishman and Sebastien Haller.
However, it seems that plans are afoot to bring in new forwards in the January transfer window.
Sport Witness carries a report from Defensa Central claiming that the Hammers are interested in two Real Madrid players ahead of the turn of the year.
There is interest in Luka Jovic and Mariano Diaz, two strikers who have fallen down the pecking order under manager Zinedine Zidane.
Jovic has made just two La Liga starts thus far this season while Mariano has played just once, in an appearance that lasted a total of 14 minutes.
One has to imagine that David Moyes’ side would only be interested in signing one of the pair, and the report states that Real would rather let Jovic leave on loan than in a permanent deal.
For Mariano, however, the opposite is true, as his contract expires in 2023.
Jovic is valued at £22.5m by Transfermarkt; Mariano is valued at £10.8m. Between them, they have scored a total of 12 goals for Real in 73 appearances.
GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…
West Ham certainly need someone, and Jovic would be an incredible signing for one key reason: Haller.
The two played together at Eintracht Frankfurt and formed an exceptional partnership.
Jovic scored 36 goals in 75 games for Eintracht, while Haller scored 33 in 77.
Pairing the two up again would be a decent idea, especially given the Frenchman’s struggles in east London; this season he has scored just once in the Premier League.
Mariano would also be a somewhat realistic signing, given how he has fallen out of favour at the Bernabeu.
But all attention should be focused on trying to get Jovic to east London.