The Daily Mirror are reporting that ‘West Ham are confident of seeing off Newcastle in the £27million chase for Porto forward Moussa Marega’ adding that ‘Both clubs see the 28-year-old as a back-up option. The Hammers want him as competition for new signing £36million Sebastian Haller while Newcastle view Marega as an understudy for £40milion Joelinton.’

A permanent deal for Moussa Marega for that valuation is extremely unlikely given the amount the Hammers have already spent this summer, the Irons do not have the financial resources to complete on a deal of that size and even if we did the player is unlikely to be happy sitting on the bench as a backup option.

Claret and Hugh understand that an incoming striker would be dependent on Javier Hernandez leaving this summer and even then our budget for a replacement would be limited to around £10m or a loan signing to get us through to next summer.

Unless Hernandez departs and Porto drops their price to £10m or are prepared to loan out Marega we give this transfer rumour a low rating.