Three January transfer rumours West Ham fans should forget about - including former Brentford star

With the January transfer window creeping up on us at pace, the gossip columns are starting to bulge with stories ranging from carefully-researched pieces of journalism to wild speculation – and the stories surrounding West Ham United’s winter dealings are no different.

The Hammers are almost certainly going to make some moves after the turn of the new year as they battle to stave off the threat of relegation, but working out which of the stories swirling around the London Stadium are true and which are simply not worth listening to isn’t a straightforward task.

Below, we’ve picked out three rumours which we believe, for one reason or another, are highly unlikely to come to fruition (in January at least). We’ve been wrong before, but we suspect that these are the stories that aren’t worth losing sleep over…

Ivan Toney

The former Brentford forward has been scoring consistently since moving to Saudi side Al-Ahli, hitting 28 goals in 38 Pro League games, but he’s still being linked with a move back to England after just 18 months away.

There are conflicting stories out there about Toney’s own interest in heading back to the Premier League, with some outlets suggesting that he’s desperate to head home while others believe he’s happy to stay in Saudi Arabia. Even if he does want to leave, however, the economics of such a deal could be impossible to iron out.

There’s next to no chance that West Ham will be willing to pay enough money to bring Toney back on a permanent deal - Al-Ahli are in a financial position such that they have no possible incentive to sell unless they want rid of a player - and if they did let him leave on a loan deal of some kind, as has been speculated, Toney is under contract until 2028 and is reportedly earning around £400,000 per week (tax free). West Ham would have to shatter their wage structure to make such a deal work.

The only realistic way that Toney moves back to England this winter is if he decides to force a move, his club oblige, and he’s prepared to take a quite colossal pay cut. Even if all of that were to happen, there would be a mass scramble for his signature and West Ham would have a hard time making themselves look like the best option given their current league position. There are some eminently plausible names being suggested as West Ham try to find their striker. Toney isn’t one of them.

Joel Ordóñez

The promising Ecuadorian defender was almost certainly a legitimate transfer target over the summer, with West Ham believed to be one of several teams in the mix for the signature of a player who eventually stayed put at Club Brugge.

At 21 years old, Ordóñez is a huge prospect who has attracted a lot of attention from the Premier League, but it’s highly unlikely that he leaves Belgium this winter, not least because he signed a new four-year contract in September. Ordóñez will leave for pastures new eventually, but it’s rare that a player moves quite so soon after committing themselves to their current employers.

Still, his name has cropped back up again ahead of the January transfer window, but only from sources we would not personally consider worth taking very seriously – and even if they are right (for a change) then Liverpool and Newcastle are also linked and come with deeper pockets and Champions League football. Maybe next summer West Ham will have a chance to make their case to the youngster, but he probably stays where he is for now.

Sacha Boey

We’ll start this final entry by admitting that of the three, this is by far the least problematic rumour – it isn’t likely to be financially prohibitive, the player is likely to move, and the sources for the story, which seemingly started with Fabrizio Romano but which is now widely corroborated, seem strong enough. This is a simple case of a deal which West Ham are almost certainly going to be beaten to.

Boey, a right-back who shone at Galatasaray but has struggled to get going with current club Bayern Munich, is definitely up for sale but a host of teams are keen, most pertinently Juventus, who made a loan bid for him at the very end of the summer transfer window and are known admirers. The current reporting strongly suggests that if Boey does leave Bavaria, Turin will be his destination. And who can blame him?

Should a very likely deal fall through, then the suggestion is that West Ham would want Boey as cover with Aaron Wan-Bissaka heading off to AFCON, but they already have Kyle Walker-Peters available and right-back is scarcely a position of dire need. If – and it’s a big if – a move to Juventus falls through and none of the many, many other teams interested are willing to strike a permanent deal, then a loan move becomes a perfectly possible option. But the sheer number of boxes that need to be ticked before that happens is very high indeed. Still, we’ll acknowledge that this one is merely unlikely rather than impossible.