West Ham have agreed a club-record deal to sign striker Sebastien Haller from Eintrach Frankfurt in a fee that will cost them more than €45m and add-ons to secure the Frenchman.
A deal is not completed yet but Haller is expected to be in London imminently to have his medical, with West Ham club staff in China ready with the paperwork to get the deal signed off.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini missed out on his number on target Maxi Gomez who decided to join Valencia instead of the Hammers from Celta Vigo but the club swiftly turned its attentions to Haller.
The manager faced the media in Nanjing earlier on Tuesday where he hinted that something could be about to happen when he the boss said: "We are trying to sign good players" when he was asked about his lack of strikers.
Below is the full transcript of what the Chilean manager had to say to football.london and the rest of the assembled media at the Shangri-La Hotel in Nanjing.
How has pre-season gone so far?
“Well, we started 1 July in Switzerland and we were there for ten days and working in a really good place. This second part of pre-season, we came here to China to play two games, so we are not working so hard in training, but it will be very useful in helping us to return to our normal performance.”
What are your impressions of China?
“I had the fortune to live here for around a year and a half. It’s a beautiful country and about the football here in China, there is a league that is improving every year, bringing in very good players every year, so I am really happy to be here again.”
What do you hope to get out of the Asia Trophy?
“As I just said, we will play two games in a week, which is good for the players. We cannot work a lot with them but the best way is to play games so especially in this Asia Trophy, it is useful because we will play against good teams."
What do you remember about winning the Asia Trophy in 2013, with Manchester City?
“It was an important trophy because it was the start of my first year in Manchester City. It was a beautiful game. We also played against an English team (Sunderland) and we won that trophy.”
How are the players coping with the jetlag and weather after three days in Nanjing?
“Of course, when you have a seven-hour difference, it’s not easy to fight with the jetlag, but we tried to do it from when we took the flight, trying to sleep one night before. These days the players are working normally. They’re a little bit tired in the high humidity and high temperature, but they are working well.”
What are you doing to replace the three strikers who have left this summer transfer window?
“It’s normal in this part of the season that some players must leave the Club and others will arrive. It’s true we have three strikers less because Lucas Perez, Marko Arnautovic and Andy Carroll are not here, but we are trying to bring in good players and I am sure we are going to improve our squad and we hope to improve on last season.”
What have you made of Ben Johnson's development?
"I think Ben is here because he deserves to be. The way he worked last season and the very special game against Manchester City, when he played on the left side of the defence, he is a player who has a big future. All these days that he is involved with the senior players it is very useful to him."
What is your team news for the game against Manchester City?
"All the players who we brought here are 100 per cent fit and we don’t have any problems with them."
What are you hoping for from Jack Wilshere this season?
"Well, I think everyone knows Jack Wilshere as a player. Unfortunately for us, last season he couldn't play too often because he had different injuries, but now he is working with no problem every day. With his quality, of course the team will change. He's a technical player who will provide a lot of important passes for forwards in and around the opposition box, so I hope for him and for the team that he can play a full season.”
Is European qualification is the target for this season?
"Really we don't have a target before the season. We finished last season very well in the last three games, but maybe we had an inconsistent season across all the games. We didn’t always win but we played very good games against important teams. This second year, we are working with the squad to try to improve on last season. We must go game by game to demonstrate we are improving, but we will not know where we arrive in the table until the end of the season and we have played against everyone."
