Swansea City are interested in signing Diafra Sakho from West Ham United but a deal to take Andre Ayew back to the Liberty Stadium is viewed as unlikely at the moment because of the Ghanaian’s salary.

West Ham are keen to offload Ayew, who joined them from Swansea 18 months ago for £20m, while Sakho wants to leave the London club in search of regular first-team football before the World Cup. Intriguingly West Ham also have an interest in two of Swansea’s players, Alfie Mawson and Ki Sung-yueng.

Swansea would be open to Ayew returning as they search for some creativity and firepower to aid their survival hopes but it is understood the 28-year-old, who scored 12 Premier League goals for the Welsh club during the 2015-16 season, is out of reach unless there is some manoeuvring when it comes to his wages.

Sakho, who averages a goal every three appearances for West Ham but has not started a Premier League game this season, fits the strategy that Carlos Carvalhal, Swansea’s new manager, flagged up last week when he explained that the club would target players in this window who are out of favour but have something to prove because they want to go to the World Cup. Swansea, however, are unlikely to be the only club interested in Sakho and there is also the question of how willing West Ham would be to offload a player to a relegation rival.

Much could hinge on what business, if any, Swansea are prepared to do with West Ham in the other direction. As things stand, Swansea are reluctant to lose Ki, who is out of contract in the summer, and Mawson, who has two and a half years remaining on his current deal and is the club’s biggest asset.

“The intentions are to keep every player,” Huw Jenkins, Swansea’s chairman, said. “Alfie is still young and, touching on that subject, we have had no approach, no offers from West Ham on anything to do with Alfie. We are talking to Alfie [about a new contract] and we are talking to his agents.”