West Ham United are reportedly set to announce the exciting signing of Pablo Fornals imminently.
According to reliable West Ham Twitter and radio personality ExWHUemployee the Spaniard will be unveiled on Friday.
West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini looks set to make the Villareal playmaker his first outfield signing of the summer.
The fee is rumoured to be around £24million.
Sky Sports claimed earlier this week that West Ham were keen on the former Malaga star.
Excitement building ahead of Fornals announcement
And excitement has been building among fans ever since.
Videos of the skilful technician in action have had some supporters salivating.
Then Spanish football expert Guillem Balague delivered a glowing assessment of Fornals – read full story here – to ramp up the anticipation further still.
Some supporters voiced concerns over Fornals’s rather unimpressive statistics for Villareal last season.
The 23-year-old scored just five goals and provided three assists in all competitions as Villareal struggled last season.
It must be noted he helped lead the team to a fifth place finish the season before.
How new world star paved the way for Fornals to join Hammers
But Hammers fans can take great comfort in the knowledge that the mighty Barcelona earmarked Fornals as their Plan B had a move for Ajax and Holland star Frenkie de Jong not materialised.
Barca had already started making serious moves for de Jong during the winter window.
It was clear they would face stiff competition from a host of elite clubs.
And according to Marca the Catalan giants had Fornals lined up as a contingency plan.
According to J.L. Calderon of Marca, the Blaugrana were even nearly persuaded to ditch their de Jong interest and sign Fornals instead after his form led to a Spain call-up.
West Ham grateful for Barca transfer
“In his hypothetical signing for Barcelona, this (price) would greatly facilitate the operation,” Calderon said.
“The Catalans are finding many problems in a market with exorbitant prices, and the ‘Fornals option’ would be a simple and strategically very interesting move.”
But thankfully for West Ham Barca did get their man de Jong.
And as a result West Ham look to have theirs in Fornals.
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