It's a Gud'en

West Ham are hoping to finally secure the signature of Eidur Gudjohnsen - at the third time of asking.

United's bid to take the the out-of-contract striker is the third occasion in the last four years that the club have shown major interest in signing the former Barcelona star.

Back in 2007, Alan Curbishley was close to landing the Icelandic international after Gudjohnsen was told he was surplus to requirements at the Nou Camp. Following a long and protracted saga the 32-year-old opted instead to remain at Barcelona in order to fight for his first team place.

A year later he was again linked with a move to east London but that proved to be little more than paper talk.

However in January 2010 Gudjohnsen - by then at Monaco - was finally on his way to England to join Tottenham, not Gianfranco Zola's West Ham - despite having spent a week in the capital at United's expense.

The snub proved especially disappointing to Zola, who admitted that he was "not the happiest man in the world about what happened", in reference to Gudjohnsen's 11th-hour switch to Spurs.

But having rejected Curbishley and Zola, Gudjohnsen is now thought to favour a move to West Ham i norder to team up once again with Sam Allardyce, for whom he worked at Bolton in the late '90s/early '00s.

* Sky Sports News claimed this afternoon that West Ham have held talks with Blackpool striker DJ Campbell. West Ham met the 29-year-old's minimum release fee some weeks ago but Campbell has been trying to secure a move to a Premier League club.