West Ham’s new owner David Sullivan has offered a “special” player wages of £100,000-a-week to join the club.

Sullivan, who now controls the Hammers together with David Gold, admitted this week that the club are £110m in debt.

Speaking to told BBC Radio 5 live, Sullivan would not name the player but Real Madrid striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has been linked with the club.

“We’ve offered £100,000-a-week to a player and we are still not sure we are going to get him,” Sullivan said.

“He’s down to three clubs and West Ham are the only English club still in the hunt for him. Whether we get him is another thing.”

With West Ham struggling in the league, Sullivan said he had made the offer to the player to try to avoid the “horrendous” prospect of relegation.

And BBC Sport understands that prior to the takeover West Ham chief executive Scott Duxbury had been trying to bring Van Nistelrooy to Upton Park.

Tottenham and Stoke have stated their interest in the 33-year-old Dutchman, who joined the Spanish giants from Manchester United in 2006.

“There’s no transfer fee involved and he’s got the choice of almost every club in Europe. He has played at the highest level,” Sullivan added.

“We can carry one exceptional player, who would make a difference on that wage, but generally we have to bring the wages down and in the summer we would hope to sign younger players on a fraction of those wages.

“We have looked at a few players in the Championship but the reality is that it is no good if they make the grade in 12 months time, we need them to make the grade now.

“We have a crisis and you have to have a different strategy to what our long-term strategy will be.”

Sullivan has reportedly targeted two strikers and a defender to sign in the January transfer window as he tries to get West Ham out of relegation trouble.

They are currently 16th in the table and are on the same number of points as Hull, who are in the relegation zone.

“We are trying to sign players because unfortunately we have come in very, very late and we have got a very unbalanced squad,” added Sullivan.

“We are particularly short of strikers and they are the hardest and most difficult position to fill. That’s the short-term objective.

“We have guaranteed that we will not sell a player in the transfer window and we are looking at targets. We are doing our best for West Ham but at the moment we are drawing blanks.

“It’s a difficult time to sign players but the club desperately needs strikers and we have to bring some in.”