West Ham hinted at a £20 million offer for Celtic striker Moussa Dembele in a cryptic report on their official website on Thursday.
A regular feature labelled "The Insider" by an anonymous writer whose comments are "not necessarily the views of West Ham United" said the London club have made "a bid of £20 million" for a "player from Scotland."
However, multiple reports on Thursday night said Celtic had yet to receive any official bids for Dembele.
Hammers manager Slaven Bilic earlier refused to comment on reports that Dembele was one of his main January targets, but he had discussed his interest in Brentford striker Scott Hogan and Sunderland forward Jermain Defoe moments earlier at a media conference.
The article also said West Ham had made an £8m bid had been made for a Championship player and a £6m offer was issued for a Premier League player.
Dembele has scored 19 goals in 36 games since arriving from Fulham in a four-year deal in the summer for a development fee of about £500,000. The 20-year-old further cemented his hero status among the club's support by netting his fifth goal against Rangers in Celtic's 2-1 victory at Ibrox on Saturday.
Manager Brendan Rodgers has consistently stated that Celtic will not sell Dembele this month and the club will likely be emboldened by the fact that Virgil van Dijk is being touted for a £50m move 18 months after leaving Parkhead for Southampton in a £13m deal.
Dembele has also shown his potential to a wider audience outside of Scotland this season, hitting a spectacular double for France under-21s against England and scoring three times in the Champions League group stages.
Rodgers is keen to add to his squad ahead of another European campaign and Celtic are working on finalising a £2.8m move for 19-year-old Ivorian midfielder Kouassi Eboue from FC Krasnodar.
Bilic also confirmed on Thursday that Simone Zaza has played his final game for West Ham.
Zaza failed to impress after joining the Hammers on loan from Juventus in the summer, and with an automatic transfer reportedly set to drigger if he plays four more games, Bilic said he will not return.
"He is still our player until he goes somewhere but mainly because of the situation with his contract he is finished here," he said.
"Unfortunately we had to judge him on six, seven, eight games which is not a big pattern to judge a player in general.
"He is definitely a good player but like many times in football, it just didn't happen."
On Hogan, Bilic added: "He's a good player. I watched him a few times. He is very sharp, quick -- a good finisher, doing it in Championship. He's young and a good prospect."
Information from Press Association Sport was used in this report.