As the new Premier League season appears over the horizon, West Ham United appear to finally be in a position to negotiate for a £40m-rated midfielder.

David Moyes will surely be delighted to get some new blood in through the door as he goes into the final week of pre-season as the only manager without a new signing on board.

With Declan Rice having been sold to Arsenal and Gianluca Scamacca on the verge of moving to Atalanta, the Hammers are actually in a worse position than they were at the end of the 2022/23 campaign – and that’s despite being the reigning Europa Conference League winners.

According to Football Insider sources, the east Londoners are keen to acquire Man United’s Scott McTominay, but as with their pursuits of other players this summer, they’re apparently not willing to pay the going rate.

Clearly, that is still going to represent a problem for the club, who run the very real risk of actually beginning the season without a new signing.

Fortunately for the Hammers, the transfer window remains open for a good while yet so there is plenty of time for deals still to be done.

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There’s a cogent argument that David Sullivan is actually playing a great game of poker at this point and the closer we get to the end of the window, the more likely that prices plummet.

However, given the current state of play, West Ham aren’t really in any position to be gambling on their immediate future.