West Ham expected to sign Pierre Ekwah Elimby from Chelsea
West Ham are expected to sign young French midfielder Pierre Ekwah-Elimby from Chelsea, according to RMC Sport journalist Loic Tanzi.
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Thursday, Tanzi reported that Ekwah-Elimby, 19, has already been training with the Hammers ahead of a permanent transfer to East London.
Tanzi also reports that the Irons will be paying £1.2million to sign Ekwah-Elimby but a large percentage of his next sale will go to Chelsea.
First addition of the summer?
It seems as though Ekwah-Elimby is going to be the first new face to arrive at the London Stadium this summer and while it's hardly a headline-grabbing deal, it's still a promising one.
West Ham are paying very little for Ekwah-Elimby, who they've ran the rule over in recent weeks with the 19-year-old playing for the Under-23s in Premier League 2.
The teenager, who can play as a centre-back or defensive midfielder, played in both matches against Arsenal's Under-23s in May, scoring in one of the fixtures.
According to Chelsea's official website, Ekwah-Elimby is "is a quick and athletic individual who also enjoys coming out of defence with the ball and has a good range of pass".
We do need to add some extra depth to the defensive area of the pitch and we could also do with a new defensive midfielder so Ekwah-Elimby could not only be seen as an Under-23s addition but also someone who can be on the fringe of the first team.
We'll see what the plan is for the ex-France Under-16 international, who Chelsea signed from Nantes.
But if we're paying over £1million, you'd expect he'd be decent.
In other West Ham news, a big-money striker Moyes wants has been spotted with a Hammers star.