West Ham United are ready to make a move for Dan-Axel Zagadou in the summer transfer window.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport, who claim that, following a number of reports linking David Moyes with a move for the out-of-contract centre-back in recent weeks, the 59-year-old is now ready to make an offer to the 23-year-old defender.

However, the report goes on to state that the Hammers are not alone in their pursuit of the former Borussia Dortmund starlet, with Jose Mourinho's AS Roma also believed to be keen on the former France U21 international - who is excepted to demand an annual salary in the region of €1.5m (£30k-per-week) plus bonuses.

Absolute steal

Considering the undoubted potential Zagadou possesses, in addition to Moyes' rather desperate need of reinforcements in the heart of his defence, it is not difficult to understand why the Scot would be interested in bringing the Frenchman to the London Stadium this summer.

Indeed, at present, Nayef Aguerd, Angelo Ogbonna and Craig Dawson are all struggling with injuries, while Issa Diop recently sealed a £15m move to Fulham, meaning Kurt Zouma is currently the Hammers' only available senior centre-back heading into Sunday's meeting with Nottingham Forest.

As such, it is clear that West Ham could use added depth at the back prior to September's transfer deadline, with Zagadou looking to be both a cost-effective and impressive addition to the club's current options.

While it is true that the 23-year-old has endured a series of different injuries over his short career thus far, when he has featured, he has highly impressed - something he demonstrated back in Dortmund's 2019/20 campaign.

Over his 15 Bundesliga appearances that season, the £8.1m-rated centre-back helped his side keep five clean sheets, in addition to making an average of 1.1 tackles, one interception, 2.3 clearances and winning 3.2 duels - at a success rate of 72% - per game.

The £35k-per-week talent also impressed in an attacking capacity, scoring one goal, providing one assist and creating one big chance for his teammates, as well as completing an average of 50.3 passes - at a success rate of 91% - 4.1 accurate long balls and 0.4 dribbles per fixture.

These metrics saw the defender who Julian Brandt dubbed "unbelievable" average an extremely impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.25, ranking him as Dortmund's sixth-best performer in the league that season.

As such, with Zagadou clearly being an extremely solid and ball-playing defender, should Moyes feel that he can get back to his 2019/20 form at West Ham, the signing of the 23-year-old on a free transfer would undoubtedly be something of an absolute steal for the Hammers this summer.