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Andriy Yarmolenko is set to have his move to West Ham United from Borussia Dortmund rubber stamped following the first part of his medical at Hammers' Swiss training camp, the deal although agreed in principal is thought to rely on a second mandatory medical back in the UK to comply with various FA and insurance policies. The initial fee will be in excess of £17 Million rising to as much as £23 Million with performance and appearance add ons. Like many players with a relatively high price on his head Yarmolenko failed to settle following his high profile move from Dynamo Kyiv to Borussia.

Yarmolenko's season at Borussia Dortmund was blighted initially by injury but then by the new manager's preference to use other strikers, and while the 27 year old may have failed in the Bundesliga he managed to crack in a goal every other game for the Ukraine while on International duty.

"When we had the opportunity to sign him, we did not hesitate, because he really is the kind of player we were looking for," said West Ham director of football Mario Husillos. "I think Manuel Pellegrini is the perfect coach for Andriy and his style of play."

Be afraid Big Andy, be very afraid. - Ed

These are exciting times at the London Stadium, or Bad Ragaz to be precise, many West Ham fans are in disbelief that the club have not only acquired an attack minded world class manager but are also 'splashing the cash' in order to bring in the sort of 'top class' players that fans had been promised would arrive once the club had left the Boleyn Ground, this was part of the master plan to take the club to the 'next level'. So why the sudden change and where is the money coming from?

As we have mentioned in recent editorials this season is unique in that the board can spend some real money, last season they were unable to because of the rule change that meant they couldn't take out a 'pay day' loan against future earnings, this was a common place practice not only for West Ham but also Everton until they were taken over. So last season they were unable to borrow in the way that they had before which left a £50 Million 'black hole' to deal with, it's a pity that the board or someone from the club's hierarchy didn't have the cojones to explain this, had they done so fans would have been far more sympathetic and understood what was going on, unfortunatley due to the 'preening' nature of all top football club owners, honesty is seen as a sign of weakness when it comes to discussing financial affairs!

Thus far, West Ham are virtually commited to a £100 Million spend if they continue to pursue the Felipe Anderson deal, and that excludes their wages commitments! So obviously the much vaunted £75 Million transfer kitty will be well and truly smashed, something or more accurately someone has to give. The media is becoming obsessed with 'bouncing out' Mikail Antonio, further more they are valuing the 27 year old winger at only £15 Million whereas his true value is more like £25 Million, likewise several other 'fringe' players have been mentioned but with a very low return.

West Ham are in the fortunate position of not HAVING to sell players to balance the books at least not initially, far better to hold onto players who could be sold at a premium during the January transfer window. That said Andy Carroll is about to begin the final year of his contract and might be sold, but Manuel Pellegrini might want to retain the Big Geordie as part of a plan B to bring him of the bench to 'batter' opponents in the closing stages of games, whether Carroll would be happy in that role remains to be seen.

Interestingly Carroll was rather recalcitrant when commenting to the official WHUFC.com website about being in Switzerland, "“It’s fantastic, the facilities that we’re in. The hotel is brilliant and the pitches we’re training on are great as well, so everyone is enjoying it and everyone is in a good mood". more tellingly when talking about training with the new manager he went on to say “He seems good. He knows what he wants. Obviously, his CV says it all and we’ve just got to listen to him. He’s brought in his staff and they’ve been fantastic as well. “We’ve just got to work hard, listen to him and hopefully we can push on this season.”

We are not sure at the Org but are of the opinion that this is the first time in six years, if you include his one year on loan, that Andy Carroll has been fit for West Ham United at the start of a season, but unless 'El Pel' is some kind of fitness genius most people expect 'Big Andy' to pick up his usual half season threatening injury sooner rather than later, we expect Andy to be gone by the end of this window despite his proclamations. - Ed

Having completed what has been described as 'one of the most comprehensive medicals ever seen for a footballer', Jack Wilshere will finally be unveiled as a West Ham United player today. The paper work has been completed and the promo video has already been filmed, the official confirmation had been delayed until monday in order to maximise publicity as it was thought that the news would get lost due to a certain football match involving England!

As has been widely mentioned, Wilshere's signing was effectively rubber stamped as soon as Manuel Lanzini picked up his nasty injury, although not disimilar both players could function together when Lanzini does eventually return, in fact having Wilshere in the squad might enable Lanzini to have a full recovery and not be rushed back too soon as has often been the case in the past with important players. As Wilshere's Arsenal contract had expired, no fee was involved which, so long as the old Hammers new signing injury curse doesn't strike, represents great value even at £100,000 per week for three years.

Essentially with a bit of ducking and diving West Ham have acquired Jack Wilshere and Ryan Fredericks without any up front payment, not only do the deals represent gret value but they also increase the 'British' content of the squad which will be most useful in order to comply with the 'home grown player' ratio that all Barclays Premier League clubs must adhere to. The 'home grown' factor is very important because the next additions to the squad will use up a lot of the overseas quota!

Finally West Ham are closing in on a club record £40 Million deal for Felipe Anderson, negotiations with Lazio have been fractious to say the least but it seems as if the deal is finally going to happen. Many fans were of the opinion that Lazio were taking the rise out of West Ham because of the way they kept moving the goal posts, but there are probably a lot more reasons why the deal has proved so difficult to get over the line, namely the payment structure, apparnetly Lazio kept raising the price to offset Hammers' plans to pay the fee in three instalments, a business practice that is commonly used and one that West Ham have exploited in the past.

With Ryan Fredericks, Issa Diop and Lukasz Fabianski having already arrived at the London Stadium the addition of Anderson will really show how Pellegrini wants his team to shape up, deals for Fabian Balbuena and Andriy Yarmolenko are also in the pipeline. Central defender Balbuena is set to arrive from Corinthians after they confirmed a fee which is reported to be £3.5 Million had been agreed with West Ham and Borussia Dortmund winger Yarmolenko is due to arrive in London for his medical. Yarmolenko only joined Dortmund a year ago for a fee of £23 Million from Dynamo Kiev but they are willing to let him go and their sporting director, Michael Zorc, confirmed late on Sunday that West Ham were in talks over a deal.

So far West Ham have only released James Collins, Patrice Evra and Joe Hart from the senior squad, although Reece Burke is said to be interesting both Hull City and Derby County, apparently a deal was in place for the youngster to join Hull but Derby under the management of Frank Lampard are attempting to hijack the deal. Still the numbers are not adding up though, who else will be shown the door? Interesting times ahead - Ed
PS: The name on the back of Jack's shirt when he was a youngster? None other than the 'mad monk' John Moncur!