Despite some of the bright signs that we saw under manager Nuno Espirito Santo and the way that he wanted his West Ham United side to play, ultimately the damage had been done and our quietly spoken 52 year old Portuguese gaffer could not pick up the points we needed to avoided relegation back into the Championship.

Knowing that life now dictated that we would spend a minimum of 12 months back in the second tier of the English game, as many who use the best betting sites available for their transfer odds would have hoped, it has been a busy old summer on the transfer front with a number of high profiledepartures to balance the books and raise cash.

Particularly when a player wanted out feeling that their relegation causing performances meant they instantly deserved to play at a higher level.

There have also been a number of incomings as we look to reshape the squad in the hopes of better days ahead, and with relegation always being a good time to fully attempt to trim the deadwood, it seems we may have finally found a resolution for a player who is simply not part of Nuno’s long term thinking at the London Stadium. 26 year old Jean-Clare Todibo featured only 25 times across all competitions for the club last season, but getting any interest in the two capped French international so far this summer has been akin to getting blood out of a stone.

Whilst we will undoubtedly still have to compromise somewhat on the reported £35 million valuation that we hold on the centre back, there is now at least some more solid speculation on the rumour mill of interest from Premier League clubs and a few Italian Serie A suitors.

The situation is of Todibo’s own making having refused to play in the PL curtain closer against Leeds United, whilst also vowing to never play for Nuno again, and he may well have thought clubs would be lining up for him – but that simply has not been the case.

With Aston Villa seeing their squad gutted with transfers this summer, and losing England international Ezri Konsa more recently, it feels that the Midlands and B6 may likely be his best bet for a new destination before Deadline Day rolls around and slams shut. Although links to French Ligue 1 side Marseille do continue, they can currently only offer a loan deal because of financial constraints and obviously we would prefer to just get him off our books and bring this sorry affair to an end.

Whether the Villans interest, and the ongoing talks at this moment in time, actually morph into an acceptable firm and concrete offer for the player remains to be seen right now, but with serious discussions reportedly taking place, we are at least far closer to a suitable resolution this week than we were two weeks ago. That is at least progress of some kind.

There is further hope as Napoli, Atalanta (and to a lesser degree Juventus) have been named as the three main interested Italian parties, but whilst this will not lead to any kind of bidding war that benefits us on that front, it opens up further options even if the best outcome would be a loan to buy scenario with an obligated clause.

Hopefully this interest will firm up in the next 48 or so hours, leaving plenty of time to get a deal over the line before the window shuts until January.