Report: Medel Deja Vu

Turkish newspaper Fanatik have claimed that West Ham are ‘close to an agreement’ with Besiktas for midfielder Gary Medel this summer. Pellegrini has been constantly linked with a move for the 31-year-old midfielder since taking over at West Ham.

In February this year, Pellegrini confirmed Medel was the only real player he was interested in during the January transfer window telling reporters “The only player we had interest in was Gary Medel, they told us it was free and we were interested because he can play in two or three positions. But then it turned out the player was not free.

“So I think that we have the squad and we will work with it until the end of the season. Then we will see in the summer what we need to do. The January window does not offer many solutions.”

Pedro Obiang is expected to complete his move to Sassuolo later this week for a fee thought to be around £7m.

Claret and Hugh have been told there is no planned direct replacement for Obiang so we think this is unlikely but a player possible on a free or low transfer fee is still a small possibility given the statement from the manager that he can play in up to three positions. The Turkish press hasn’t got the best track record so we have rated this rumour as low.