Hammers look to nail down Carroll

Liverpool have moved a step closer to offloading Andy Carroll with the striker set for a medical at West Ham today.

The England international is flying in from holidays for his physical assessment with the Hammers.

Carroll missed the national team’s end-of-season friendlies against Ireland and Brazil with a heel problem, with fears it could sideline him for up to four months. It remains to be seen whether that has much effect on his medical but with a £15 million-plus deal agreed several weeks ago Liverpool will be keen for the move to go through as soon as possible so they can continue with manager Brendan Rodgers’ squad strengthening.

Having already secured a free transfer for Manchester City defender Kolo Toure and agreed a £7.7m deal for Celta Vigo’s Iago Aspas, the club have a number of targets they wish to tie down.

Sporting Lisbon defender Tiago Ilori and Sevilla midfielder Luis Alberto, both 20, are likely to be the first to be completed but negotiations are also continuing over a deal for Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, with the future of Jose Reina yet to be decided.

Shakhtar Donetsk’s £20m-rated Armenian forward Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who scored a Ukrainian Premier League record 25 goals last season, increasingly looks like being the club’s preferred attacking option with Luis Suarez so publicly courting Real Madrid.

At the back, the situation is less clear as Schalke are seemingly not prepared to sell the Reds’ primary centre-back target Kyriakos Papadopoulos for the Merseysiders’ valuation of about £12m, despite the player having been sidelined by a knee injury since November.

Having also cooled their interest in Swansea’s Ashley Williams, with whom Rodgers has previously worked, after deeming the asking price not value for money, other avenues are being explored.

Ajax’s Toby Alderweireld has been linked with a move to Anfield but he has already had preliminary talks with German side Bayer Leverkusen.

Elsewhere new Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini is in a straight battle with his old club Real Madrid to secure Spanish midfielder Isco.

The 21-year-old is certain to leave cash-strapped Malaga and he told Spanish newspaper AS that both the Spanish giants and Pellegrini’s side have made concrete offers.

Asked about the efforts the two clubs have made to sign him, Isco responded: “Those are the two clubs that have shown the most interest.

“I hope to decide soon because I still have a contract with Malaga. I know that Manchester City and Real Madrid are both huge clubs. I hope that whatever I choose will be the best for me and for Malaga.”

When pressed on the matter, he added: “Yes, there are offers on the table from both.”

Meanwhile Hull have signed former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on a free transfer. The 30-year-old is a familiar face to Tigers boss Steve Bruce, who also signed him when he was in charge of the Latics in 2008.

In Scotland, SPL champions Celtic could be set to dip into the transfer market for 21-year-old FC Groningen defender Virgil van Dijk, valued at €4m.