West Ham United will have to agree a buy-back fee with Manchester City if they want to buy Kelechi Iheanacho, reports the Daily Mail.

What’s the story?

The Hammers are believed to have targeted the Nigerian as an answer to their attacking woes.

Iheanacho struggled for first-team minutes under manager Pep Guardiola this season, starting just five Premier League games.

The fact that Sergio Aguero and Brazilian starlet Gabriel Jesus are above him in the pecking order, makes it even harder to find a breakthrough.

The Daily Mail reports that City are only willing to allow £20m-rated Iheanacho to leave if a buy-back clause in inserted in the deal.

It is believed that the North-West outfit do not want to make the same mistake that Chelsea did by selling Romelu Lukaku to Everton without having the option to re-sign him.

The Mail claims that West Ham will accept a clause that is more than double what they pay for Iheanacho, while City want £30m or less.

Worth putting up a fight?

West Ham are in need of some firepower this summer having struggled to impose a serious threat during the season, so it puts City in a better bargaining position.

The two-time Premier League champions do not desperately need to offload Iheanacho as he can be used as a backup in the event that Guardiola’s main two forwards get injured.

From West Ham’s point of view, injury problems hampered Andy Carroll, Diafra Sakho and Andre Ayew.

It makes financial sense for the East London outfit to negotiate a buy-back clause that would give them a decent profit, but demanding too much could see City pull the plug on the deal.

Iheanacho has the ability to make an impact at the London Stadium if given a run of games.

This season he scored four goals and created three assists in 20 league outings, of which five were starts.