Transfer News: West Ham Make Improved Bid for Robert Snodgrass

West Ham have made an improved bid of £5 million for Hull City’s talisman Robert Snodgrass, according to sources at Sky Sports. This follows the rejected £3 million bid for the Scotland international last week.

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Snodgrass’ contract will expire in 18 months, and he recently rejected a contract offer from Hull. There may be temptation for the club to cash in on the 29-year-old before he almost certainly leaves for an even cheaper fee during the summer.

Hull currently sit rock bottom of the Premier League, but only three points from safety and have recently installed Marco Silva as new manager. They are a club seemingly in crisis and were unable to name a full complement of substitutes for Tuesday’s 0-2 loss to Manchester United in the EFL Cup semi final.

Silva knows how crucial Snodgrass is to Hull’s survival and told a press conference:

“I hope [Snodgrass] will continue with us, he’s an important player for us.”

Snodgrass has seven goals and two assists in the league this season; he leads Hull in goals and assists and is their most important player. If they were to lose the Scot it would almost certainly spell doom for the team’s relegation battle. A similar situation to West Ham’s seemingly fruitless campaign to snare Jermain Defoe from Sunderland.

Previous Hull boss Mike Phelan has expressed doubts about whether a £5 million bid will be enough to be accepted:

“They [Hull City] paid quite a lot of money for him [Snodgrass]. He’s now 30 [sic] years of age, he went there for seven or eight million so they’d be looking for their money back I’d have thought.”

The offer has been met with derision from some football supporters:

Since moving to Norwich City from Leeds United in 2012, Snodgrass has more than proved himself as a Premier League player. This season he is averaging a goal every three games and is a proven dead ball specialist.

With speculation swirling about Michail Antonio and Dimitri Payet potentially leaving the Hammers in the January transfer window, Snodgrass could add valuable depth and goals to our midfield. Payet and Antonio have contributed 10 league goals this season – Antonio [8] Payet [2], adding another goal scorer to the team can only strengthen the squad.

There is a chance that the deal could happen, but it would require Hull to ask themselves some difficult questions. They could keep Snodgrass for the rest of the season, and go all in for Premier League survival and possibly lose the Scotsman at the end of the season.

Or they could cash out now, and all but resign themselves to a return to the Championship. The reaction of the club here could determine the policy for the rest of the season and how they view their chances of survival.

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Securing a player of Snodgrass’ quality for just £5 million would be a real bargain for West Ham. Adding to the already strong midfield would leave the club well equipped to make a surge up the table in the second half of the season.