It seems likely that Niclas Fullkrug might be on his bike in January, with a number of German clubs interested in signing the big injury-prone German. Fullkrug's agent Thorsten Wirth has said in a podcast: "Looking back, we have to say the transfer didn’t work out. There’s no point in sugar-coating it. This always has to happen in cooperation with the club, but I believe it can make sense to change something there."
That seems a little simplistic as Fullkrug's problem has been that he's always injured rather than his choice of club. Two of his injuries have occurred while with the Germany squad so perhaps it's time for him to retire from international football and put his body under less strain. It would be a mistake to let Fullkrug go on loan as he's on a reported £100k a week and West Ham would likely have to pay a large slice of his wages. A cash offer might be tempting but it's going to be very difficult to sign a replacement striker in January when clubs are reluctant to sell halfway through the season.
My best option would be to get him fit, hold him to his contract and keep him until the end of the season. Fullkrug, who cost £27 million, was starting to show some form last season with goals at Leicester and Man City, only to do his hamstring at Villa in the FA Cup. He returned to score a fine header against Bournemouth and be "very angry" after the Southampton draw, but once again this season he has succumbed to injury and has only ever started 13 games for the Irons.
He's the sort of player who needs games but when he has got a run together he's started to look a decent striker. Nuno started him in his first two games and likes a big target man so it makes sense to keep him as an option. West Ham are going to need an alternative to the 33-year-old Callum Wilson at some stage and we need all the strikers we can get. After failing to get the best out of Haller and Scamacca it would be satisfying to finally get some kind of return from another expensive international striker.
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