The Daily Mirror reports that Gianluca Nani has confirmed West Ham's interest in 24-year-old Inter midfielder Luis Jiminez.
Nani is quoted by the paper as saying: "He [Jiminez] is a great player, one that we have always followed. He is a possibility but nothing is certain. He is also a non-EU player and it is not easy to get a permit for those players in England.”Chilean Jiminez, who also captains his country is rated at around £15million by his club, therefore any potential deal is likely to be loan-based with a view to purchase. The Hammers are said to be facing competition from Arsenal and Tottenham.
Elsewhere Sheffield Wednesday say that defender Tommy Spurr - who was linked with a move to the Hammers last weekend - is yet to put pen to paper on a new contract offer. "The players are on holiday now and I wouldn't expect to see Tommy and Richard Wood until they report back for pre-season," Owls boss Brian Laws told the Sheffield Star. Interestingly, Wednesday - whose young centre half, Mark Beevers, has also been linked with West Ham - have just signed central defender Darren Purse from Cardiff.
Predictably perhaps today's papers have chosen to ignore Matthew Upson's considered comments from yesterday's England press conference regarding West Ham and Gianfranco Zola in order to concentrate on a reply he gave to a question regarding playing in the Champions League, from which they have reached the conclusion that he is looking to leave Upton Park. See KUMB's 'Upson on future' story here for those.
Times football writer Gary Jacob had gone one step further by claiming the Hammers will consider selling their best players - in direct contrast to the club's new non-executive Chairman Andrew Bernhardt's statement yesterday. "The club will want to reduce the wage bill and that could make them more likely to accept offers for the highest earners at the club, players such as Dean Ashton and Matthew Upson," predicted Jacob, without any foundation whatsoever.
In other transfer news, many sources are now reporting KUMB's story from a week ago regarding Radoslav Kovac's situation. West Ham remain interested in taking the Czech midfielder on a permanent basis but not at the fee quoted by the Russians.
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