A major West Ham transfer update has emerged this weekend...

What's the word?

According to the ever-reliable ExWHUemployee, the Irons' plans to sign a new defender will be accelerated due to the pre-season injury suffered to first-choice centre-back Angelo Ogbonna.

"I can confirm, as I have done before, that the centre back position is the position that the club wants to complete first," he revealed to The West Ham Way's Patreon site.

"This is where our attention is focused at the moment and should be where the next signing is made.

"There are a couple of players in the mix but the club hopes to complete soon, although nothing is that close at the moment. If I had to pick, [Kurt] Zouma would be the number 1 choice at the moment but this could change based upon the negotiations.

"Ogbonna’s injury has sped up this priority."

Reason to be excited?

After the departure of Fabian Balbuena during this off-season, Hammers boss David Moyes has been left short in defence, especially with his lack of trust in Issa Diop to regularly start matches, having featured from the off just 15 times in 2020/21,

Heading into the new campaign, his likely first-choice pairing would be Ogbonna and Craig Dawson, but with the former looking to be out for the foreseeable future, it's no wonder the club want to bring in reinforcements as a priority.

It's believed that the Scotsman already wanted to sign a top-quality centre-back and, a result, they have been linked with some rather exciting names, ranging from Chelsea's Kurt Zouma - as mentioned by Ex - to the likes of Fiorentina's Nikola Milenkovic, Burnley's James Tarkowski and Marseille's Duje Caleta-Car.

West Ham have only made one senior signing this summer, amongst the fewest in the Premier League right now, so this news should be rather exciting as it seems that their plans will be ramped up in the coming days.

The Irons also need to find a replacement for Jesse Lingard, as well as cover for central midfield and full-back, but as Ex claims, their focus is now on finding Moyes that centre-back for which he is longing.

Whether it's Zouma, Milenkovic or someone else, the London Stadium faithful should be buzzing by this major update.

AND in other news, West Ham fans will surely love exciting Sky Sports transfer claim on £65k-p/w "beast"...