Specualtion continues that West Ham have made a £13m bid for Eibar defensive midfielder Joan Jordon.

Yesterday, Sky Sports reporter Kaveh Solhekol added it on the end to a tweet about Gomez in a tug of war between  West Ham and Valencia.

Sevilla are the strong favourites to have a contract agreement in place with Jordan and have already offered 10 million Euros.

Jordan has long been on Sevilla’s radar and the Spanish club are hoping to conclude the deal with Eibar this summer.

The midfielder is reported to have agreed on a verbal pre-contract with Sevilla on a four-year deal according to Spanish daily Mundo Deportivo.

Previously Claret and Hugh have been told that an additional defensive midfielder is not a priority this summer and than Pellegrini is happy with Declan Rice with Mark Noble and Carlos Sanchez as cover. I would be surprised if a formal bid of the full release clause has been submitted by West Ham. It isn’t our style and we are currently focussed on a striker.

Andriy Yarmolenko would almost certainly be the first to bemoan his first season at West Ham.

After a slow start because of injury the previous season he was hit with a massive injury against Tottenham on his 10th Premier League appearance and spent the rest of the season on the injury list.

His two goals at Everton were largely responsible for the first seriously important win of the season and it was a massive blow to the team when his season ended just four days later.

But now David Gold has tweeted that he is very confident that the Ukranian midfielder/striker will be very much in the frame when pre-season starts.

The options this will give the team are tremendous as at his best to watch Yarmo cutting in from the right and smashing in shots with his left foot is a sight to behold.

And David Gold has delivered good news on the player believing he will have a big pre-season tweeting in response to a question: “I am confident he will back for preseason training. dg 

It’s never wrong to dream  – hope and optimism is what should keep us going through life and football.

So as the new season slowly advances upon us, with the signing of Pablo Fornals clinched, and much discussion about bids for Maxi Gomez having been confirmed, excuse me while I fly in the face of the cynics and sceptics.

For I believe that should we land the Celta Vito striker – a deal which most thought was a close to dead deal – West Ham could be on what most believe the next level to be – the top six.

There’s no point in running through the squad again but it will become the strongest we have seen at this club for many years, with the midfield options in particular incredibly attractive, although a second defensive midfielder would be good.

Even should Gomez not arrive there is clearly room in the budget for a decent operator up front and that should bring great hope.

Right now I reckon we need to be looking at Arsenal – apparently on a limited transfer budget this season – as the most vulnerable of the top six clubs and, although it takes a big leap of imagination, should we grab the players we need I don’t think top six is entirely beyond us.

Pellegrini’s track record shows – and he has repeated it many times – that he has made a career of managing European challenging clubs.

That’s the ambition this season and, after a year of maintenance and a relegation free campaign despite so many injuries and poor decisions, I am ruling nothing out at this stage.

Eight weeks to go and counting…exciting times ahead!

Let’s dream big.

COYI

There can’t be many fans who are finding it easy waiting for the new season following the arrival of Pablo Fornals along with the possibility of Maxi Gomez arriving.

This is the sort of thing to expect when clubs invest millions in a top management team and there is no doubt that Manuel Pellegrini and Mario Husillos were the key signings to all that is now happening at the club.

Together they are reported to be earning around £10 million and with that sort of money invested a change for the better is an automatic expectation.

Their knowledge of Fornals having mentored him as a kid at Villareal was critical in landing the player – Gomez will test them further but whatever the outcome the young midfielder is delighted to have joined us.

He has speaking to www.whufc.com about his feelings as he prepares for his first Premier League season and they are a reflection of how most of us must be feeling as we look forward to new season.

He said: ““I knew about the fans, and about the stadium, which is beautiful. The fans fill every weekend a stadium that can fit 60,000 people and I think it is important to play with the support of your fans at home.

“They fill it every weekend, and that is something admirable especially with the passion with which football is lived [at West Ham].

“Every match for me is going to be new, every team is going to be different. I’ve never played against any team [in England] so for that reason I’m really motivated and with the ambition to win as most matches as possible.”

“I have worked more with Mario, I know him from when I was in Malaga. With Manuel I saw him and admired him on TV.

“Obviously, of course Manuel was a big influence because in the end he is one of the best coaches in the world and who doesn’t like to work with people like that?”

West Ham have reinforced their position on Issa Diop this morning making it crystal clear to Manchester Unted and any other interested club home or abroad: “He is not for sale – end of.”

Diop was a major hit in his first Hammers season forging a brilliant partnership with Fabian Balbuena and is only one year into a five year contract following a £22 million transfer from Toulouse last summer.

Agents have been testing our resolve to hold onto him through Director of Football Mario Husillos and this morning via an e mail a top Hammers insider made the club’s position as clear as it gets to ClaretandHugh.

He said: “It’s very simple – he is going nowhere. He is a major part of the team and at his age is set to become an integral part of things at West Ham.”

Manchester United are ready to offer £45 million plus a player but that is in no way tempting the Irons where our source simply added: “Their interest is of no interest to us whatsover.”

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Issa Diop is tonight emerging a  target for Manchester United!

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reported keen to tie up a summer deal which would see us get between £40-£45 million plus a United player.

The news was broken by journalist Kaveh Solheko on his personal Twitter account and sources inside the London Stadium were not ready to pour cold water over it.

We understand that nothing has gone beyond a sounding out operation between United-employed agents and Hammers director of football Mario Husillos who is being tested to give a response to the Hammers resolve in holding onto the player.

The interest started as early as the front end of last season when Jose Mourinho was in charge of the Reds and referred to him as a “monster” and asked his scouts how he had not been noticed.

Now it seems Solskjaer may be ready to follow up but we were told by senior insiders that £40 million and a player was not a sufficient bait for the hugely impressive young Frenchman.

It was indicated clearly to us that the club has no desire or need to sell and that we are in the same territory as we are with Declan Rice with the player’s value growing year on year.

We were told on the phone: “Agents are regularly sounding out clubs about players but we have no desire or intention to sell Issa Diop or any other player. “

West Ham are waiting on a response from Celta Vigo after lodging a £25 million bid for Maxi Gomez.

Despite reports from Sky that two identical £29 million bids from ourselves and Valencia have been accepted, West Ham have told us within the last few minutes that the bids are simply on the table at this stage.

It looks certain that Vigo will accept offers from either or both of us but at this stage the striker has two big decisions to make.

The first will rest on assurances from the West management team that he will not be used as a back up striker to Marko Arnautovic, Should he not receive them then he could be on his way to Valencia.

With the La Liga club having qualified for the Champions League that is a draw in itself and word is that he is determined to be seen as the No 1 striker at whichever club he decides to opt for.

A Hammers top insider told us by e-mail: “There is a bid on the table and we await word from the club as the player makes up his mind.”

West Ham has confirmed tht a reported bid for Maxi Gomez is essentially correct.

Sky Sports reported that identical bids of £29 million had been lodged by the Irons and Valencia earlier in the day.

But CandH has been told the Hammers have bid in the region £25m although it is not known what offer Valencia has tabled for the Celta Vigo striker.

While Gomez would get to play in the Champions League with Valencia, West Ham are able to offer him significantly higher wages approaching £100,000 per week which would make him one of the highest paid players at the London Stadium.

And we were told Mario Hussilos is understood to negotiating with both Celta Vigo on the fee and Gomez ‘s representatives on personal terms as he bids to get the transfer over the line.

Owners David Sullivan and David Gold are giving Pellegrini and Hussilos their full support and financial backing to do what it takes to make the deal happen.

They are expecting more sales from the club but may well be ready to stump up further cash if it’s required to outbid Valencia.