West Ham came ‘very close’ to signing Harry Maguire from Manchester United over the summer, Irons coach Kevin Nolan has revealed.
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Maguire seemed destined to leave United having fallen out of favour with Erik ten Hag and getting stripped of the captaincy.
Though the centre-back’s form has badly dipped for his club, he is still a trusted England international and there was a good amount of interest in him during the last transfer window.
West Ham were the clear frontrunners for his signature and after weeks of negotiations they agreed a £30million fee with the Red Devils, in a move that seemed to suit all parties involved.
However, the transfer collapsed with reports suggesting that personal terms could not be agreed and that Maguire wasn’t interested in the move and didn’t even speak to manager David Moyes.
Maguire has ended up staying at Old Trafford – much to the annoyance of fans – though an injury crisis in defence means he will still be of use to Ten Hag.
The Irons are unlikely to revive their interest in the player in January, having since signed former Arsenal defender Konstantinos Mavropanos from Stuttgart instead.
Now, Nolan has detailed as much as he can about why the move failed to materialise, telling talkSPORT: ‘I think it was very close, I was a bit upset that we didn’t make it [happen].
‘I think it was just in the end, the money didn’t get sorted from what I can gather which is obviously upsetting from our behalf because we wanted to [sign him].
‘Probably upsetting from Harry’s behalf and probably United’s behalf as well.
‘I think the gaffer [Moyes] was in contact with Harry, his agent and everything else but yeah, obviously we then had to move onto our next target.’
That last bit of information would suggest that Maguire did in fact speak to the West Ham manager about the move, though it’s not clear whether the ‘money’ refers to the player’s wages or the transfer fee.
After a difficult start to the season, United will be hoping for better when they host Brighton on Saturday, while West Ham will be aiming to keep their unbeaten start going when they host Manchester City on the same day.
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