West Ham close to signing Swansea defender Alfie Mawson

London, Dec 29: West Ham United are reportedly close to signing Swansea star defender Alfie Mawson.

ESPN claims David Moyes has made the centre-back a top transfer target for January and is extremely close to landing his target.

Despite Swansea’s status as the Premier League’s bottom club, Mawson has been an impressive figure at the heart of the defence and could yet receive an England call-up ahead of the 2018 World Cup.

Moyes is said to be a big fan of the 23-year-old and may be prepared to hand over £20million plus add-ons in exchange for his signature next month.

The report adds that Swansea do not want to sell Mawson but know that they could use the money to strengthen other parts of their squad where they need bolstering.

West Ham are also believed to be targeting a new central midfielder and are interested in Bournemouth’s Harry Arter.

However, Moyes has admitted he’s tempted to try his luck for Sevilla’s Steven N’Zonzi, explaining: “I think he’s somebody who would be of interest to us if he came on the market.

“I wouldn’t say that about others, but he’s not playing for some reason at Sevilla – albeit the manager’s gone, so maybe that changes the situation there.

“Overall, it’s not something I can say I’ve done anything with. We’d like to add to the squad and, in the position in the table that we are, we’ll need to.

“I think the club knows who we want to go for and positionally what we’d like to do.”

West Ham have significantly improved since the appointment of David Moyes after the sacking of Slaven Bilic and Moyes is now looking to bolster his backline.

Moyes will be eager to prove himself at West Ham United following his poor spell at Sunderland which ended in the Black Cats getting relegated.