West Ham United are confident of concluding a deal to secure the Juventus centre-half Angelo Ogbonna, with the Italy international due to take a medical and sign a four-year contract at Upton Park this week.
Ogbonna, who has 10 caps, had attracted interest from Everton but the prospect of moving to London appears to have swayed his decision. A fee of around £10m has been agreed with Juve, for whom the defender was an unused substitute in the recent Champions League final defeat by Barcelona, as Slaven Bilic seeks to bolster his backline.
The 27-year-old made his name at Torino before controversially moving across the city to Juve two years ago and going on to make 41 Serie A appearances with the club. He claimed two league titles and an Italian Supercup and an Italian Cup in that time, but was deemed surplus to requirements this summer and permitted to depart.
The West Ham co-chairman David Gold accidentally tweeted a picture of Ogbonna last month when welcoming Pedro Obiang’s arrival from Sampdoria, though that mistake now appears to have been prophetic. The club have also signed Dimitri Payet from Marseille, Darren Randolph under freedom of contract from Birmingham and the former Manchester City youngster Martin Samuelson.
Interest is retained in Barcelona’s Alex Song, who spent last season on loan at the Boleyn Ground, and the Arsenal full-back Carl Jenkinson. They have also reached an agreement in principle with the United Arab Emirates club Al Jazira to take the midfielder Manuel Lanzini on loan for a season. The 22-year-old Argentinian, who holds an Italian passport, moved to Abu Dhabi from River Plate a year ago.