Richards/Irons update

West Ham’s hopes of signing Manchester City’s Micha Richards have been described as no better than fifty/fifty by ClaretandHugh sources.

We broke the news yesterday (Tues) the Hammers were involved in talks with City but that there were several hurdles to overcome.

We were told, his club are anxious about letting him out on an extended loan in the final year of his contract.

And this afternoon our source explained: “Talks have been going on and there has been a lot of reportage on the issue but although we are talking, we are no closer to an outcome.

“The player is on around £70k a week and there is no real willingness to do a wage sharing scheme. There’s also the problem that to let him out on loan could decrease his value.

“Some media outlets are claiming that a deal is close but it doesn’t look that way from where West Ham are sitting. We will try to thrash something out but nobody’s holding their breath.

“And with James Tomkins looking likely to be available for the weekend there’s no massive urgency attached to doing a deal quickly.”