West Ham target Alassane Plea has €40m release clause
West Ham might have to pay €40m if they wish to sign impressive OGC Nice attacker Alassane Plea in January.
The Hammers were first linked with a move for the 23-year-old striker back in June, the player’s agent told Sport Witness, but the player ultimately stayed put with the Ligue 1 club and has hit a rich vein of form lately.
Six goals in the opening 10 games of the 2016/17 Ligue 1 season, including a stunning hat-trick against FC Metz on the weekend has helped guide Nice to the top of the table a quarter of the way through the season.
The former France U21 international started his career at Lyon but failed to make an impact there, making just 12 appearances before a 2014 loan spell to Auxerre was equally uninspiring.
A €500k move to Nice in the summer of 2014 was next for Plea and the striker seems to have found a home with 13 goals and 13 assists in 67 appearances for the club, with this current campaign easily his best of his career so far.
Plea has less than two years to run on his current contract and will be an in-demand player in the near future if he keeps up these impressive outings for Nice, but the club will stand firm on the €40 asking price, given that it is his release clause.