West Ham and Fulham in £15m transfer race for Panathinaikos star striker Fotis Ioannidis
FULHAM and West Ham are looking at Panathinaikos’ star striker Fotis Ioannidis.
The Prem duo want extra firepower and see prolific Ioannidis as a potential squad signing.
AFPGreece’s forward Fotis Ioannidis is a target for West Ham and Fulham[/caption]
The ten-cap forward is valued at around £15million by the Greek top-flight club.
But they will let him fulfil his Premier League dream if offers are decent.
The 6ft 2in powerhouse has been in irresistible form for his club this season.
The 24-year-old is enjoying his best campaign in terms of goals.
In the Super League Greece, Ioannidis has managed 13 goals in 23 games.
However, it’s in Europe where he’s really come to prominence.
Panathinaikos started the season in the Champions League, but were knocked out by Braga in the qualifying stages.
They were then given an opportunity in the Europa League, where Ioannidis found his shooting boots.
He netted five times in six games, until they were eliminated from the competition.
Ioannidis made his debut for Greece in 2022, and has gone on to make 10 appearances for his country.
‘We want West Ham to challenge the Big Six, but it’s not getting any easier’
By Karren Brady
ONE year perhaps there will be a visit from the football gods and a team will fight their way out of the Premier League forest of also-rans.
Nottingham Forest did so, under Brian Clough 46 years ago, champions and then twice winners of the European Cup before they fell to the unwritten law of “your time’s up, pal”.
Even in the brief history of the Premier League, Blackburn in 1994-95 and Leicester City eight years ago were champions — then came that immutable law again and both are now residing in the Championship.
Wonders do happen. Manchester City had won only TWO titles in the First Division before, wading in a tide of oil money, they swept to the first of their seven Prem crowns.
It could, I suppose, happen to Forest Green Rovers, but I doubt it.
No, there are unofficial guarantees in the future of our league football and they are held by the presumptuously named Big Six, with one or two wealthy others knocking at the door.
You have to believe, don’t you, and I do — that my team could be hammering at the door along with the likes of Aston Villa and another of the liquid-gold clubs, Newcastle United.
However, an elite section is not as it should be in the best possible world.
Despite our ambitions at the London Stadium, the people who run the game must at least try to bring more clubs back into the big-time picture.
Since the rebel rich blithely tried to join a European Super League and were scuppered by their supporters, the game has moved further towards the wealthier and successful clubs.
So now the task should be to try to prevent the cliff edge that is forming, not between the top flight and the Championship, but between the top six in the PL and the rest.
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The striker scored his first goal in a 2-2 draw against France in a Euros qualifier last year.
Ioannidis has previously been linked with a move to Celtic, before penning a new deal with Panathinaikos a few months later in 2023.
Serie A giants Lazio are also reportedly interested in his services.
