West Ham United are set for talks regarding a deal to bring Duje Caleta-Car to the London Stadium in the January transfer window.

What's the talk?

That's according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee, who revealed in a recent post on The West Ham Way that Rob Newman and the Hammers' transfer team are set to meet with Olympique de Marseille to discuss a deal for the centre-back.

The Irons insider goes on to state that David Moyes' side are hoping to land the 25-year-old on a loan deal that includes an option to buy, while the Ligue 1 club are only prepared to part with the defender on a permanent basis - with a fee of £15m being widely reported as the Croatia international's asking price.

Regarding West Ham's interest in Caleta-Car, Ex said: "We believe talks will happen with Marseille for Caleta-Car to see if a compromise can be reached on the deal. We would like to initially loan [the defender], as he is unproven in England, but Marseille do not. It will be interesting to see how this develops."

Fans will be buzzing

Considering just how impressive Caleta-Car has been in France this season, in addition to the fact that West Ham are in rather urgent need of a new centre-back following the season-ending injury suffered by Angelo Ogbonna, the news that Newman is set for talks with Marseille in order to negotiate a deal for the 25-year-old is sure to have left the London Stadium faithful buzzing.

Indeed, over his 11 Ligue 1 outings this term, the £14.4m-rated defender has been in remarkable form for Les Phoceens, helping his side keep five clean sheets and scoring one goal, as well as making an average of 0.7 interceptions, 1.2 tackles, 1.9 clearances, 68.2 passes and winning 74% of his duels per game.

These returns have seen the £47k-per-week man average a SofaScore match rating of 7.15, ranking him as his club's fourth-best performer in the French top flight.

As such, with both Craig Dawson and Issa Diop - particularly the latter - having done little to convince Moyes that they are capable of making the step up to becoming one of the 58-year-old's bonafide starters in the absence of Ogbonna, it would indeed appear extremely wise for the club to do all they can to bring in Caleta-Car in the coming days - as the arrival of the centre-back would undoubtedly provide West Ham's top-four hopes this season with a significant boost.

In other news: Contact made: Moyes can land the next Drogba as WHU make move for "explosive" £8m gem