Are West Ham preparing an £18 million bid for Daniel Sturridge?

According to some very intriguing reports this morning, West Ham United are readying an £18 million bid for Liverpool’s star (but constantly injured) striker, Daniel Sturridge.

The claims have emerged from the Brentwood Gazette (via the Daily Mirror) overnight and certainly wouldn’t be out of character for West Ham, after the club signed another of Liverpool’s permanently injured forwards a few years ago, Andy Carroll.

The Liverpool striker has spent the best part of the past 18 months struggling with various injuries, and many fans are starting to believe that the striker is just too expensive a player to keep in the treatment room.

There have also been suggestions from former players and pundits that there may be other issues surrounding the striker’s injury, with ex-Red Didi Hamann even going as far as to tell talkSport that the club has a responsibility to tell the ‘paying fans’ what is going on with Sturridge’s injuries.

The Champions League winning star claims that, during his Manchester City days, Sturridge was always complaining of some tweak or knock and  was not prepared to push himself to the limit.

Those are quite dangerous claims from Hamann, and are likely to only damage the player’s relationship with the fans and club, but it is clear that many are now on their last nerve as the player has now missed more games for the club since joining than he has taken part in.

Which, to come back to those claims last night and this morning, make the idea that another Premier League club would be willing to take the same risk seem a little strange. You also have to raise the question: how the hell would he pass a medical?

Whether true or not, Sturridge is – when available – one of the deadliest strikers in Europe and raises the whole Liverpool team when fit. But should West Ham (or another other club) offer Liverpool serious money, then it will be interesting to see whether the money, or an occasionally fit player, would be a more attractive prospect.