West Ham’s efforts to sign Mario Balotelli take a very quick and dramatic twist

Well, that didn’t take long.

Despite claims from Italy that West Ham were making a late push for Mario Balotelli, even going as far as stating the Nice striker was ‘enticed’ by the prospect of returning to the Premier League, the forward will be signing for Marseille.

Expected in the afternoon at the Ligue 1 side’s training ground, according to a midday report from La Provence, the former Manchester City will now travel two hours down the road on Wednesday morning to pass his medical before signing a contract.

RMC Sport continue by stating Balotelli will then sign a six month contract with Marseille, where he will earn more than he would have done were he to stay at Nice.

Whether the West Ham story was just Mino Raiola trying to put pressure on the Ligue 1 side to get a deal over the line, we’ll probably never know, but if it was, it certainly did the trick.