The Premiership club are also hoping to sign Middlesbrough's Mark Viduka having made the acquisition of an experienced striker their number one priority in the January transfer window with manager Alan Curbishley unconvinced about his current options.

West Ham are also interested in Darren Bent . . . but don't believe Charlton Athletic will sell the 22-year-old.

Wright-Phillips remains reluctant to leave Chelsea even though the club are keen to sell him rather than loan him out. They will accept £10m . . . less than half the £21m they paid for him in the summer of 2005.

Indeed it's believed that the 25-year-old, who has made only two starts this season, will only accept that he does not have a future at Stamford Bridge if he is told so directly by manager Jose Mourinho . . . and that has not happened yet.

It's unlikely that another club will match West Ham's offer although Aston Villa are now understood to be monitoring the situation, with manager Martin O'Neill wanting to sign a rightwinger.

A complication for West Ham's chances of succeeding is Chelsea's interest in Manchester City's Micah Richards. City would be prepared to take Wright-Phillips, plus around £10m, as part of a transfer but the England international is not thought to want to return. His family, including brother Bradley Wright-Phillips who is now at Southampton, are all near London. Portsmouth and Newcastle United also remain interested.