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West Ham could soon face a transfer dilemma if reports from The Sun are to be believed. Crystal Palace are keen on Michail Antonio who enjoyed quite a successful season, bagging six goals in the Premier League.

But with their coach Manuel Pellegrini seemingly enjoying having the forward in the squad, the same source claims West Ham are determined to stick with the 29-year-old Englishman.

Even though there's no denying he was rather useful in their latest campaign, keeping him would prove to be the wrong move when everything is said and done. Here are two reasons West Ham need to change their transfer stance on the former Nottingham Forest man...

Inconsistent

Antonio is slowly heading towards the twilight of his career and even though his goal return last season was impressive, upon further inspection of his stats we notice that he is largely inconsistent. The most recent campaign was a success, yes, but the previous one was nowhere near that level. Likewise, even last season all six of Antonio's Premier League goals came in three different months - April, February and December. The rest of the time, he failed to score.

This might be a rather worrying revelation for Pellegrini who seems to be banking on the 29-year-old repeating his success come next season. His age is also playing against him in this scenario. Players seldom get better with age and it's difficult to imagine his goal tally increasing as he gets into his 30s. Putting your future on a senior player is quite the slippery terrain West Ham are treading and they should be careful going forward.

Check out a fan's outrageous call for England to take a leaf of out cricket and rugby's book after a limp Nations League performance in the video below...

 Cash-in while you still can

The second reason is purely of a financial nature. Antonio is 29 and according to Transfermarkt, his estimated value has been in a steady decrease ever since January last year. At his peak, he was worth around £16.2m but now that has decreased to £10.8m and could very well continue with that same trend in the near future.

The Sun don't mention any concrete figures offered by Crystal Palace but there's talk of a "lucrative offer" from Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia as well. If there is truly a bidding war set to start out for Antonio, West Ham should get in on the action while they still can.

With just two years remaining on his contract and Antonio not getting any younger, the current interest represents easily West Ham's chance to get a big fee for the versatile attacker.