West Ham United director of football Gianluca Nani has confirmed that the club are set to sign Savio Nsereko, but not Mario Balotelli.
Nani close to Brescia deal, but no Balotelli
West Ham United director of football Gianluca Nani has confirmed that the club are set to sign Savio Nsereko, but not Mario Balotelli.
The Hammers have been tracking youngster Nsereko for a number weeks and now look ready to pounce ahead of the likes of Napoli and Roma.
It is widely reported that West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola will pay around £9million for Ugandan-born Nsereko - who is a German youth international.
He began his career with 1860 Munich, before he was snapped up by Brescia as a 16-year-old, and Nani played a major role in landing him as he was working for the Italian club at the time.
Nani has now returned to his former club to broker the move for the 19-year-old forward, although he was quick to again dismiss links with a loan move for Inter Milan starlet Mario Balotelli.
"We are working on Savio of Brescia, and we are well advanced," confirmed Nani to
Mediaset.
"We have never talked to anyone about Balotelli, if we have Savio in place then that could be us done in January."
Agent expects
Savio's agent Patrick Bastianelli expects the deal to West Ham to go through soon.
"The player is very close to West Ham," he admitted to the Italian press over the weekend.
"Savio will go away soon, and the boy is happy to find Zola, a great coach and with him he will only embrace an important technical programme from which he will only grow and improve.
"West Ham have accelerated the negotiations."
It has been suggested that West Ham would need to sell before buying during the window, but it now appears Zola has been given full backing by the club's hierarchy.
Reports also suggest that Zola's wish to keep the likes of Robert Green, Scott Parker and Matthew Upson will come true, with new deals set to be offered to the trio.
