Bowyer ready at last to sign for West Ham

By signing Lee Bowyer, West Ham United will finally complete a deal which should have been sealed several years ago, according to the club's Academy director, Tony Carr.

Bowyer was brought up in Poplar, the heart of West Ham territory, but went to Charlton as a youngster, and they reaped the rewards when they sold him to Leeds United more than six years ago for £2.7m – then a British record for a teenager.

But with only the finer points of his Hammers contract to be ironed out – the midfielder returned to Leeds yesterday after a medical to finalise personal details – Carr is looking forward to seeing Bowyer in a claret and blue shirt at last.

"You do know about these youngsters as schoolboys. It was touch and go whether he would go to West Ham or Charlton, and for whatever reason he chose them," said Carr, who denied claims that West Ham rejected Bowyer as a youngster.

Bowyer played for the same Sunday league team as the West Ham striker Jermain Defoe and Carr added: "We can't win them all."