Loic Remy is quite the wanted man with Newcastle, Queens Park Rangers, Inter Milan and Borussia Dortmund vying for the Marseille man's signature.
Harry Redknapp flew to France hoping to tempt Remy into signing for QPR, but it is believed the France international has his heart set on a move to Newcastle.
Redknapp even threw in Shaun Wright-Philips into the deal that would have brought Remy to Loftus Road, according to the Daily Mirror, but the 26-year-old has made it clear he is not interested in a move to the relegation-threatened club.
Inter Milan and Dortmund have shown a late interest, and with the clout of the two bug clubs, Marseille could yet decide to sell to one of the two if a bigger bid were received, but as it stands it is Newcastle who are the frontrunners for the signing of Remy.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew is desperate to add a striker to his ranks after losing his leading scorer Demba Ba to Chelsea. Remy, who will fit in well with Pardew's 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, would be the perfect addition, with Papiss Cisse able to move into his preferred role down the middle.
The Magpies, who have brought in Mathieu Debuchy from Lille, need to bring in more reinforcements as soon as possible, or they could face a serious battle for relegation.
Meanwhile, West Ham, after already completing the signings of Joe Cole and Marouane Chamakh, are ready to up their bid for Blackburn left-back Martin Olsson.
Sam Allardyce, who has worked with Olsson during his time at Ewood Park, is keen to bring in the Swedish international, who himself is desperate for a return to the English Premier League.
Blackburn have reportedly rejected a £2 million ($3.2 million) offer from West Ham for the 24-year-old, but Allardyce is prepared to increase the offer in a bid to land the highly-rated defender.
West Ham are also reportedly closing in on the signing of Cruzeiro forward Wellington Paulista on loan until the end of the season.
