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West Ham United and Leicester City are being reported as being ready to pay £18 million for Roma defensive midfielder Amadou Diawara.

And according to Calciomercato, the Serie A giants have already identified his replacement.

The former Napoli youngster told Sky Italia last week that he is ‘happy’ at the Stadio Olimpico but according to the new report it appears that he may not be making the decision on his future.

He has been slipping down the Roma pecking order and with the Hammers looking for defensive midfield cover there may be something in this one.

He is reported to be a very classy deep-lying midfielder who averages a 90 per cent pass completion rate from his favoured defensive midfield role.

However, there are of course snags both financially to the possible move and from the player’s perspective given the strength of the Irons midfield.

The question from that perspective is whether he would be prepared to become second and third fiddle to Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek.

And unless the Irons could work out an agreeable instalment payments plan with Roma the deal is not going to happen with the club so strapped for cash as things stand with the pandemic still hitting revenue streams into the club.

It could come down to a choice – assuming the interest is real – between the midfielder and striker Josh King who we understand to be a priority target for David Moyes in the next window.