West Ham sold Declan Rice to Arsenal earlier in the window for a British record fee of £105m and David Moyes wants to sign two midfielders to offset that loss.
However, the Hammers remain the only Premier League club to not sign a player this summer with just over a week before the new campaign begins.
The club have been hamstrung in the market by the internal differences between Moyes and the new director of football Tim Steidten.
The German is pushing to sign Fofana from Monaco but the transfer committee, which also comprises Moyes, Mark Noble and David Sullivan, are not united on wanting to bring in the Frenchman.
With only a year left on his contract, the midfielder is likely to be available for a relatively manageable fee but there is no agreement behind the scenes.
While Steidten is pushing to bring in young players from Europe based on his scouting, Moyes wants to sign Premier League-proven British players.
This key difference has even extended to the internal differences in the committee over signing Fofana.
West Ham are pushing to sign players but for the moment, a split transfer committee have been holding them back.
