West Ham linked with £25 million move for Championship striker

West Ham are being linked with a £25m move for Blackburn Rovers star Adam Armstrong with the forward’s goalscoring exploits attracting Premier League interest.

Armstrong has enjoyed a superb individual campaign for Blackburn and is the Championship’s second-highest scoring player behind only Brentford’s Ivan Toney, netting 19 league goals in 31 appearances so far this season.

The 24-year-old’s form has attracted interest fro top-flight sides with West Ham understood to be amongst the sides considering a move, though the Daily Mail are reporting that Blackburn will demand a huge £25m from any interested parties.

Those demands come despite Armstrong’s contract expiring in the summer of 2022, with Hammers’ boss David Moyes having reportedly been hopeful of landing the forward for a fee of around £10m.

Blackburn, however, have seen the success of second tier forwards stepping up into the Premier League and are using Ollie Watkins’ £28m move to Aston Villa as a ‘precedent’, last season’s Championship Player of the Season having excelled since making a club-record move to Villa Park from Brentford last summer.

Armstrong also has a huge 40% sell-on clause included in his contract, with former side Newcastle entitled to a significant portion of any profit made on the star who moved to Ewood Park for a fee in the region of just £1.75m in 2018.

West Ham are desperate to add to their forward options with Michael Antonio currently the club’s only recognised senior option, with Moyes having sanctioned the sale of club-record arrival Sebastian Haller during the January transfer window following a disappointing spell at the London Stadium.

Moyes has enjoyed previous success when signing players from the Championship – including the arrival of Jarrod Bowen from Hull last winter – though it remains to be seen whether the West Ham boss will match Blackburn’s asking price given Armstrong’s contract situation.

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