Nayef Aguerd will undergo the second part of his West Ham medical on Friday despite late interest from Newcastle, 90min can confirm.
The 26-year-old underwent preliminary checks in France on Thursday and will complete the remainder of his medical in England, as planned, after flying into London.
Aguerd is expected to pen a long-term contract with the Hammers should he come through the club’s checks unscathed, and he will become David Moyes’s first signing of what could be a very busy summer in the transfer window.
West Ham have been in negotiations with Rennes over Aguerd for a number of weeks, and 90min reported on Monday that the club were close to completing a transfer worth around £30m plus add-ons – the Hammers seeing the left-sided central defender as the ideal player to bolster a defence weakened by injuries to Kurt Zouma, Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop last season.
90min can also reveal that West Ham’s bid to get a deal finalised was briefly disrupted by two late approaches from Newcastle United, who are desperate to strengthen their own backline – but a deal to move to London Stadium is still on despite the Magpies’ interest.
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Newcastle have been trying to sign Dutch centre-back Sven Botman from Lille for a number of months, but their attempts to persuade him to move to St James’ Park have been complicated by interest from Serie A champions AC Milan, as well as PSG.
Sources have previously told 90min that Newcastle believe they are ‘well placed’ to sign Botman, but their approaches for Aguerd suggest any potential deal is still far from completion.
