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This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

Torino have rejected a €60m (£54m) bid from West Ham United for Andrea Belotti, per Tuttosport.

What’s the word?

The Hammers are thin in the striking department after selling Marko Arnautovic to Shanghai SIPG and also allowing Andy Carroll and Lucas Perez to leave the club.

They currently have Javier Hernandez and Jordan Hugill as their forward options.

And the report claims that Belotti was the subject of a big bid as the club looked to solve their forward crisis.

The offer was swiftly rejected, however, with Torino keen to keep a player who has scored 70 goals in 148 games for the club.

Cheaper option found

A deal for Belotti already appears to be dead in the water after West Ham reached an agreement to sign Sebastian Haller from Eintracht Frankfurt.

The Bundesliga club confirmed on Tuesday that he is set to undergo a medical with the Irons before a move that Football FanCast sources understand could cost as much as £50m.

Belotti, of course, would have been an intriguing option for Pellegrini's men, and he has a solid record of goalscoring.

The Torino star scored 17 goals in all competitions last season; he netted 13 in 35 as he battled injury woes in 2017/18 and in 2016/17, when he played the majority of games throughout the season, he netted 28 in 38.

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But a move for Haller is now in the advanced stages and one cannot imagine the club signing both - it would come to an outlay of over £100m.

The Frenchman is 25 and has been a consistent forward at both Frankfurt - where he has scored 33 goals in 77 games while providing 19 assists - and FC Utrecht, where he netted 51 goals in 98 outings.

Haller is a different type of forward to Belotti; the latter usually plays up top on his own, while the former partnered Luka Jovic in the Bundesliga last season.

Neither have played in the Premier League, though, and it appears that the Irons have done a deal for the cheaper option, in the hope that he will prove value for money.

Belotti may actually be a more proven option - he has won 22 caps for Italy and has played over 170 games in Serie A while Haller has yet to be capped by France and has 60 Bundesliga outings under his belt.

Pellegrini, though, will be praying that he has made the right choice as the Hammers look to improve on last season's 10th-placed finish.