West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has dampened speculation that the club could sign Roma striker Edin Dzeko.

The Hammers boss managed the Bosnian international when he was Manchester City manager, but when asked about signing the player in the January transfer window, the Chilean dismissed the claims:

“You can talk about five, six or seven players that are linked with us. We must not talk about one player.”

“I know him well but we are not thinking about that at the moment.”

Maybe Manuel Pellegrini thinks he has done enough in the transfer market and now needs time to work the players he signed in the summer as well as players like Robert Snodgrass who has received a second chance with the club under the new Hammers boss.

You can’t argue that Pellegrini did not receive a good Cashfloat as he was heavily backed by the Hammers ownership with plenty of transfer funds when he signed his own highly-paid contract to take over at the London Stadium in the summer.

Reports in Italy in recent days have suggested that West Ham would be willing to pay €25m (£22m) for Dzeko, with the player struggling to agree a new contract at the Stadio Olimpico.

The Bosnian’s current deal expires in 2020 but Roma are reportedly not willing to give him the €4m a season he is demanding.

Dzeko has been in good goalscoring form for the Giallorossi this campaign. He has five goals in nine appearances, including a hat-trick against Viktoria Plzen in a Champions League group game earlier this month.

During the international break, the 32-year-old scored the winning goal against Austria and both goals against Northern Ireland as Bosnia won both of their UEFA Nations League fixtures.