West Ham United are interested in a deal to bring Aaron Hickey to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee, who revealed on a recent episode of The West Ham Way podcast that, after pulling out of the race for Everton left-back Lucas Digne, David Moyes has now turned his attention to younger options in the position this month, with the 19-year-old Bologna left-back being one of the 58-year-old's targets.

Speaking about the Hammers' interest in the Scotland U21 international, Ex said: "I've been told there's another Scottish left-back that we may have an interest in, he currently plays for Bologna and is called Aaron Hickey.

"He was on the brink of joining Aston Villa, and Aston Villa are on the brink of signing Lucas Digne - the Everton left-back - who we were also showing a distant interest in. That interest stopped quite early on when we discovered his wage demands.

"I think Moyes is looking to get someone a bit younger with a bit more to prove, and someone who more fits the bill. So this Scottish left-back at Bologna... he's a very good player with a lot of potential."

Fans will be buzzing

Considering the sheer amount of potential Hickey quite clearly possesses, the news that West Ham are interested in a move for the 19-year-old this January is sure to have left the London Stadium faithful buzzing.

Indeed, over his 19 Serie A appearances in the current campaign, the £11.7m-rated left-back has helped his side keep five clean sheets and scored four goals, as well as making an average of 0.9 interceptions, 1.1 tackles, 0.8 clearances and winning 62% of his duels per game.

These returns have seen the £16k-per-week defender who Daniel Stendel dubbed an "extraordinary talent" average a highly impressive SofaScore match rating of 6.91, ranking him as Sinisa Mihajlovic's sixth-best performer in the top flight of Italian football.

As such, with Ex claiming that Digne was demanding between £160k and £180k-per-week in order to make a move to West Ham, it would indeed appear that pulling out for the race for the 28-year-old in favour of a move for Hickey was a very wise move by the Hammers boss.

The youngster will undoubtedly be a much cheaper option for the club - as well as one who could well turn out to have a higher ceiling than Digne.

In other news: "We do like..": Ex drops big transfer update on WHU-linked beast, Moyes would love him