West Ham are considering making a fresh approach for Chelsea striker Demba Ba in January, according to reports in the Mirror.
Sam Allardyce’s side have often struggled in front of goal this season and the newspaper claims that the Hammers’ co-owner David Sullivan has made a personal appeal to Ba to make the switch.
However, the Senegalese forward isn’t interested in moving back to his former club and only wants to play for a club in the Champions League.
Ba is currently the third-choice forward at Stamford Bridge but may be afforded more opportunities this month as Samuel Eto’o is currently out with injury whilst the December fixture list is arguably too much of a workload for Fernando Torres to handle alone.
The 28-year-old has played nine times for the Blues this season, scoring two goals, and put in an impressive performance against Southampton on Sunday that gives Jose Mourinho something to think about.
He was meant for a loan move to Arsenal on the final day but Romelu Lukaku had made a request to leave the West London club and ended up going to Everton whilst there were also rumours that Mourinho was spooked by the Gunners’ transfer coup when they signed Mesut Ozil, so the switch did not materialise.
Mourinho told a press conference on Friday that he is not planning on making any additions in terms of his attacking options this January and that he was sticking with the three he has. If true then Ba won’t be allowed to leave the club this winter but things are rarely straightforward where Chelsea are concerned and this is subject to change depending on which opportunities arise, if any.
January is not the best time to be doing your business as a football club and it may well be wise for Mourinho to stick rather than twist as the squad he currently has is capable of challenging for the Premier League and bringing home a cup or two. Perhaps he would need a new forward should he realistically be setting his sights on the Champions League this year but you never know.
