‘It was very close’: West Ham coach admits two transfers could have happened this summer

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Kevin Nolan has shared that West Ham United held talks to sign Manchester United duo Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay during the summer transfer window.

The West Ham United first-team coach added that a deal for Harry Maguire was ‘very close’ and he is ‘upset’ that a deal didn’t get done for the much-criticised England centre-back.

Nolan added that David Moyes may have even spoken to Maguire himself or his agent about moving to the London Stadium, whilst there was ‘a lot of talk’ about Scotland midfielder, Scott McTominay, as he told talkSPORT.

Whilst the Hammers didn’t get those deals done, overall, it was still a pretty healthy transfer window for the London club after selling Declan Rice.

Given that clubs knew they had that Rice money, they did pretty well in not paying over the market price for players, with James Ward-Prowse probably being the standout purchase.

Nonetheless, this was the insight Nolan provided on West Ham’s transfer links with McTominay and Maguire this summer.

West Ham’s transfer links with Maguire and McTominay

“There was a lot of talk about McTominay,” said Nolan. “But the thing is we had Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse. I think they have done an absolutely wonderful job in filling that hole (Declan Rice left).

On Maguire deal: “It was very close. I was a bit upset that we didn’t make it happen. I think, in the end, the money didn’t get sorted, from what I can gather. It’s upsetting on our behalf because we wanted to, probably upsetting on Harry’s behalf, and probably Man United’s behalf as well.

“I think the gaffer was in contact with him or his agent. We then had to move on to our next target and stuff.”

Harry Maguire criticism

After England’s win over Scotland, Gareth Southgate let rip at parts of the media who have been going at Maguire and how they have well and truly stepped the mark.

Whilst the recently axed Manchester United captain has been out-of-form for 12 months, it does seem like he is a scapegoat for a lot of things out of his control or he isn’t at fault for.

It is probably for the best that Maguire leaves Manchester United in January, or at least next summer, in order to re-start a career that has taken too many blows of late.