Reports surfacing in Italy that West Ham are planning a swoop for Claudio Ranieri are sheer nonsense.

Tuttomercatoweb reckon that ourselves and Stoke City  are eyeing a summer raid for the former Leicester chief but ClaretandHugh can firmly deny that any such move is on.

As sensationalist journalism goes this one really does take the biscuit given that the Hammers rejected the chance to even look at the sacked Leicester City boss before appointing Slaven Bilic.

Ranieri was brought to the board’s attention by an agent but he was ruled out immediately as the club chased other targets including David Moyes, Jurgen Klopp and Rafa Benitez.

The Hammers have already decided that Slaven Bilic will be offered a one year rolling deal in the summer as the team heads into calmer waters since the early season setbacks.

We were told: “Talks will be started at the end of the season but I think you will find that is acceptable to both sides.”

And that was confirmed by the manager in his presser ahead of the Chelsea game when he made it clear that length of contract made no difference to him and mentioned the sacking of  sixty five year old Ranieri to show that the number of years on a deal were virtually meaningless.