While Sebastien Haller has yet to put pen to paper and sign his West Ham contract , I will put my neck on the line this evening by suggesting he will sign within the next twenty fours and be announced as the record club signing tomorrow.

With 21 goals in all competitions plus 12 assists for Frankfurt, Haller is truly a marquee signing and a real coup for West Ham should that happen.

He will have cost the Hammers big with the first £40.5m due in instalments over the next 18 months and a possible further £4.5m in performance-related add-ons. He is expected to sign a 5-year contract on wages of around £70,000 per week which are said to be a significant improvement on his current package in Germany.

The 25-year-old travelled to London today with his agent Loic Gustan and late this afternoon passed a medical at Rush Green.

Agent Will Salthouse is said to be one of a number of intermediaries on West Ham’s side of the table.

Tales of a late Champions League bid to spoil the party appear to be too little, too late and the player is expected to honour his agreement with the Hammers.

The Hammers are finalising the last details with Haller’s agent this evening and I would be very surprised if Haller is not announced sometime tomorrow as a Hammer!

Italian Journalist Gianluca Di Marzio is today suggesting that Italian club Sassuolo have made an offer of 9 million euros (£8.1m) for Hammers midfielder Pedro Obiang.

Last month Italian journalists suggested Obiang was a target of Bologna but they needed the Hammers to lower their valuation.

Last January Fiorentina nearly signed Obiang for £10m before he was denied his move by Pellegrini who said he didn’t have enough coverage for the remainder of the season. He was promised his move back to Itay in the summer if his valuation was met.

Fiorentina could yet swoop again, as could former club Sampdoria want him back, alongside Roma who is also said to hold some interest. West Ham have previously said they will listen to offers for the 27-year-old this summer who is said to earn around £50,000 per week.

In other news Fulham and Swansea are monitoring Reece Oxford and are considering offers to take him on season-long loans according to Sky Sports News 

Former Hammer Ravel Morrison has returned to the Premier League after he signed a one year contract with Sheffield United today.

After leaving West Ham Ravel’s career dwindled in Italy and Lazio sent him out on loan to Mexican side Atlas before he moved to Swedish club Ostersunds FK. In June this year his contract in Sweden finished and he took to social media to tell his followers not to believe lies printed in the papers and that he now just wants to be left alone.

The 25-year-old scored five times for the Hammers from 24 appearances. The former Manchester United midfielder joined West Ham in January 2012 as a 22-year-old costing £1m in fees and appearance bonuses.

The player once described as Alex Ferguson as a better prospect as Wayne Rooney failed to live up to his potential.  In 2017 former West Ham manager Sam Allardyce told Sky Sports that Ravel Morrison was the biggest waste of talent he ever worked with in his management career.

West Ham are growing increasingly confident as the game of ‘swings and roundabouts ‘ continues over their big money move for Eintracht Frankfurt’s Sebastien Haller.

Despite stories of overnight interest from a Champion League club there is still no firm evidence  evidence of that being the case and certainly no definite names in the frame at this stage.

Both Inter Milan and Dortmund have been mentioned but CandH has learned from Italian media sources that the Serie A outfit are focused entirely on Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku and a Hammers insider told us on the ‘phone: “It isn’t Dortmund.”

Meanwhile, the player has been at Rush Green this afternoon taking in the training facilities where he was spotted by several members of the Hammers staff.

We understand that he has now completed his medical but there are still issues to be ironed out between the club and the agent.

The hitches which have arisen may well have been at that level which is not unusual in the latter stages of a deal but within the club,  insiders are becoming confident again that they have their man with the next 24 hours likely to prove crucial.

West Ham bid to sign Sebastien Haller may have been hit by overnight interest from an unnamed Champions League club.

With the player having arrived in London for an Irons medical, news broke that the deal may be threatened by late interest, possibly from Borussia Dortmund.

However, there was no confirmation from the player’s agent that was the case following an official tweet from Eintracht Frankfurt that a deal had been agreed with the Irons and that the way was clear for Haller to undergo his medical in the east end.

West Ham were refusing to confirm or deny the claims of new interest although it would seem strange for the player and his agent to travel to London overnight were there serious interest from elsewhere in Europe at the same time.

Most outlets reporting the news, claim that last year’s second placed Bundesliga side Dortmund may be the club involved although the striker would be offered nothing like the wages he could pick up from a Premier League

According to https://www.capology.com/club/eintracht-frankfurt/salaries. Haller is earning just over £15k a week and has negotiated a deal of £70k,  a week – or £3.3 million a year,at the Irons.

Another report suggests Inter Milan may be interested although apart from 34 year old Brazilian central defender Miranda, no player earns more than around £2.8 million a year and some much less. https://www.totalsportek.com/money/inter-milan-salaries/

Sebastian Haller will undergo a medical in London in the next few hours to complete his £40.5m record signing move to West Ham. That medical is likely to be completed at West Ham United’s official private hospital Spire London East Hospital in Woodford, Ilford where previous medicals have been carried out.

According to Nicolo Schira who first broke the news of Haller, he will sign a five-year contract until the summer of 2024 with wages of €4m per year (approx £70,000 per week)

Assuming he passes the medical he would join up with Manuel Pellegrini and the first-team squad at Rush Green after China as they prepare to face Fulham at Craven cottage on Saturday 27th July. It takes around 12 days to arrange a visa for China so there isn’t enough time to get him cleared.

Assuming his official announcement as Hammer the 25-year-old French striker would join the trip to Austria with the Hammers playing Hertha Berlin on 31st July.

The signing that changed the West Ham landscape

An admission first!

When talk started that Sebastien Haller was a target for the Irons I seriously doubted whether we could get anywhere near the player.

We all know the guy by reputation as being one of the best around and it seemed seriously difficult to believe that we could beat Champions League clubs to the striker.

As the days went by it became clear, however, that the pressure to sign him was intense and now we hear via Twitter that Frankfurt Eintracht have cleared the way for him to travel to the east end for a medical and hopefully a move to the Irons.

There could of course be late twists and turns but all things being equal the player looks 90 per cent ours although this is such a huge signing there will be no “Hallulujah Chorus” until it’s finally done.

Assuming that, I genuinely believe the Hammers are firing for a top six spot next season with Arsenal and Manchester United vulnerable to the new statement of intent being served by the Hammers.

This now looks to be a squad to die for, assuming the Haller signing is completed, although perhaps one more ‘back up’ striker may be required.

Once we hear that the player has signed I believe it will be a landmark in Hammers transfer business history.

And it comes down to a man called Pellegrini for whom anything is possible from the board.

The  guy has changed the West Ham landscape and should everything now be completed on the Haller deal I genuinely believe we are on our way into Europe.

There will be another big plus should  the move go through with other top players looking at him and Felipe Anderson and seeing the Hammers as a big club for whom they could well consider signing.

COYI