Ashton set for Hammers unveiling

West Ham are set to parade new £7m (€10.2m) striker Dean Ashton to the Upton Park crowd ahead of tonight’s Barclays Premiership clash with Fulham.

The Hammers will smash their record transfer fee to sign the England Under-21 international after emerging as the only club willing to meet Norwich’s asking price.

Ashton only joined the Canaries from Crewe for £3m (€4.3m) last January and despite scoring seven goals in 16 appearances he could not help save the Norfolk club from relegation.

The 22-year-old has netted 11 times in a Coca-Cola Championship campaign hampered by injury and yesterday agreed personal terms before undergoing a medical.

West Ham will pay an initial £7m (€10.2m), plus a conditional £250,000 (€363,000), while a 15% sell-on clause has also been negotiated by the Norfolk club.

Of the main transfer fee £1.5m (€2.2m) is payable immediately to Crewe and Ashton himself under the terms of the deal which brought the striker to Carrow Road in Norwich’s club record deal this time last year.

Ashton will be officially unveiled at a 6pm press conference ahead of tonight’s Premiership fixture before then being presented to the crowd.

The full fee will be payable should Ashton go on to win a first competitive England cap while in east London and Pardew’s side also manage to qualify for Europe during that time.

West Ham managing director Paul Aldridge believes the deal – expected to be confirmed as a five-year contract – will be money well spent.

“Alan Pardew has identified Dean as a player who can play a key role in helping the club to reach a new level, and we have therefore worked extremely hard to ensure that the transfer goes ahead,” he said.

“We are paying a club record transfer fee for Dean because we feel that, at 22, he represents an investment that can benefit West Ham for years to come at the highest level.”

Ashton said the opportunity to return to the Premiership was “too good to turn down”.

The former Crewe trainee declared “I am ambitious and at the end of the day the chance of a swift step up to the Premiership is too good to turn down.

“I spoke to [manager] Nigel Worthington and the [Norwich] board and told them I wanted to pursue this opportunity.”