JOSH Cullen is set for a return to City, the Telegraph & Argus understands.

The West Ham midfielder is expected to rejoin the club on loan until January, subject to passing a medical this morning.

Cullen will be the ninth new signing for Stuart McCall - and a massive coup considering the competition they will have faced.

As the T&A revealed a month ago, the 20-year-old has remained high on City’s wish-list this summer even after the change of management.

Cullen was instrumental in their push to the play-offs last season after joining in February, finishing on the losing side only four times in his 17 appearances.

But it was always felt that the Hammers would look to loan out the 20-year-old into the Championship after his successful Valley Parade stint.

Cullen played 83 minutes yesterday in West Ham’s friendly with Juventus to mark the official opening of the London Stadium, impressing in an attacking-midfield role behind striker Andy Carroll.

City are also hopeful that West Ham will allow Cullen to play in the EFL Cup, paving the way for him to appear at Accrington tomorrow.

Ironically, teenager Danny Devine’s impressive debut as City kicked off their League One campaign with a 0-0 draw against Port Vale had McCall joking that maybe he did not need another option in the middle of the team.

The Bantams boss is still hoping to add a creative left winger – but the focus for the remaining month of the transfer window is on securing another striker.

City’s failure to turn good possession into a breakthrough on Saturday highlighted the urgency behind that.

Swindon claims that they beat the Bantams to the punch for Gillingham’s Luke Norris are understood to be wide of the mark. There are also reports linking them with Caolan Lavery at Sheffield Wednesday.

McCall said: “We’re looking for a striker, as are lots of clubs. But as it stands, we’re not close.

“But I’m just waiting for Greg (Abbott) to give me a phone call and then hopefully all systems go.

“We’ve got two or three weeks and I don’t want to bring one in for the sake of it.

“But there are no guarantees. I remember being in Scotland and saw Aaron Mclean had joined (City) and thought ‘what a signing’.

“And there was Devante Cole even, last season. I’d seen him at Man City and thought he’d get goals.

“You’ve got to keep creating opportunities. I know Billy Clarke can score goals, Jordy (Hiwula) can score goals and Hans (James Hanson) can score goals at this level.

“While we’ve got them, we’ve got to find ways to get scoring. But we need another one to give us strong competition and mix and match with different styles.”

McCall will look to make a couple of changes if possible for the Accrington clash, although Nathan Clarke and Timothee Dieng are likely to miss out again with calf strains.

Matt Kilgallon, who was named on a six-man bench on Saturday, is not considered ready to start.

McCall added: “With calves you can be out for anything from four days to two weeks so you’ve got to be careful.

“We can’t throw in Matt Kilgallon yet because we don’t want him to strain anything. He’ll need to get some work in him over the next couple of weeks to be available.”