Reports that Gary Medel has agreed on personal terms or is on the verge of joining West Ham are untrue a club insider has told Claret and Hugh late this afternoon.

The report emerged out of the Turkish media which can be questionable at times but this has all the hallmarks of an agent planting a story to drum interest for his client.

It is well known that Manuel Pellegrini was interested in the 31-year-old Chilean in the January transfer window and he admitted in a press conference that “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”

It appears that ship has sailed and Pellegrini and his director of football Mario Husillos now have their sites on other targets.