West Ham Prepare Bid for Portuguese Midfielder - Report

West Ham United are still in the market for a strike partner for Andy Carroll - but reports suggests Sam Allardyce also has his eye on Besiktas midfielder Manuel Fernandes.

The Hammers boss has indicated that he is happy with his transfer dealings this summer but still his eye on one more piece of incoming transfer business before the transfer window closes at the start of September.

Having missed out on Inter Milan midfielder Zdravko Kuzmanovic - a player Allardyce openly declared his interest in - West Ham could still be in the market for another midfield option. According to the Mirror, the club are keen in making Fernandes that man.

The Portuguese international has racked up a season and half's worth of experience in the Premier League. He joined Portsmouth from Benfica at the start of the 2006/07 campaign, making sporadic appearances for Harry Redknapp's side before returning to Portugal at the end of the year.

A return to England was not far away as he returned for the remainder of the campaign with Everton, seemingly doing enough to earn himself a permanent move until complications over the player's ownership deterred the Toffees.

After signing for Valencia in the summer of 2007, Fernandes once again returned to Everton in January 2008 until the end of the season.

Having failed to sparkle in La Liga, 27-year-old Fernandes has enjoyed a more consistent spell with Turkish outfit Besiktas. The Mirror suggests Roberto Martinez is keen to bring the midfielder back to Goodison Park for a third spell while Sunderland have also been credited with interest, but West Ham currently lead the race for his signature.

Besiktas have come under pressure this summer from new rules implemented by the Turkish Football Federation that could force the club to offload some non-Turkish members of their squad - a circumstance that could help West Ham's pursuit of Fernandes.

New rules introduced last year mean that from the 2013/14 season clubs are limited in the number of foreign players that can be registered for a match day squad, with only six non-Turkish nationals allowed to be named by the manager per game.

Given the dependency Besiktas and other Turkish clubs have on foreign players, the club will have to choose wisely in which players are registered.

The club have been intensely linked with a move for Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor, in addition to Manchester United fullback Alexander Buttner. The potential arrivals of the Togolese and Dutch players would likely force Besiktas to offload some non-Turkish personnel from their squad, a position Fernandes could find himself in.