West Ham closing in on a deal for Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma

The Hammers have reached an agreement with

over the fee, £25m, for the 26-year-old France center-back and are now in the final stages of settling personal terms.

Chelsea are looking to complete this deal as soon as possible as they are raising funds to sign

defender

Jules Kounde

, while West Ham need defensive reinforcements to build on their solid start to the season. 

 were also interested to secure

Zouma

’s signature, but they have resigned as they were unable to offload

Davinson Sanchez

.

The Frenchman has been with Chelsea since 2014, having arrived from boyhood club

. Despite showing plenty of promise in his early years at the club, the 26-year-old was not able to nail down a first-team regular at Stamford Bridge.

However, Loan spells away to

and

helped him get his career back on track.

Zouma

scored five goals last season, which was one of his most prolific in terms of appearances until

Thomas Tuchel

took over as the new manager.

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