Guillermo Maripan – rated at around the £12 million mark looks booked for a summer switch to the Irons.
Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini has now firmly set his sights on the Chile international and director of football Mario Husillos is believed to be on the case.
The Alaves central defender has been mooted as a summer arrival for several days as the boss looks to strengthen at the back.
Should he arrive it will mean the squad is carrying five central defenders in Fabian Balbuena, Issa Diop, Winston Reid, Angelo Ogbonna and Maripan.
And that would leave the way clear for a summer departure of either Reid or Ogbonna with the New Zealander favourite for the exit door.
When we approached a Hammers highly placed source there was absolutely no denial of the club’s interest and it was clearly confirmed that a new central defender would be on the way to the London Stadium.
And Alaves will have problems rejecting the cash on offer as one of La Liga’s less well off clubs once the Irons make their move through Husillos.
Hoping that’s the case too even selling oggy as well as that gives some cash and space for a youth product to move up as Ben Johnson has shown with playing at left back recently given the chance to shine. Imo
We simply HAVE to offload Oggy this summer – with VAR in place next season, he’s gonna cost us at least half a dozen penalties against next season with his holding on!!! Don’t want to think how many points that’ll cost us!!!… #HugeRisk #COYI