West Ham co-chairman David Sullivan has revealed that manager Slaven Bilic turned down Renato Sanches and Grzegorz Krychowiak in the final hours of the transfer window as a deal for William Carvalho fell apart.
Both Sanches and Krychowiak were considered major coups for Swansea and West Bromwich Albion as they joined on loan from Bayern Munich and Paris Saint Germain.
Meanwhile West Ham were in search of the physical, energetic midfield presence provided by that duo but were chasing first-choice signing William Carvalho, for whom they were prepared to offer £33million.
Though that offer was accepted in the final hours of the transfer window it was too late for West Ham to secure a club record deal. However Sullivan insisted that the club’s summer should be judged a success after they secured Bilic’s top four targets: right-back Pablo Zabaleta, goalkeeper Joe Hart, winger Marko Arnautovic and striker Javier Hernandez.
“Overall Slaven is happy with the business we have done during the summer transfer window,” he told the club website. “We received the manager's wish-list before the window opened and we have managed to get the top four players on it.
“It is no secret that we made a club record bid for Sporting Lisbon’s William Carvalho but unfortunately that offer was rejected a couple of weeks ago.
“Late last night Sporting Lisbon made contact to accept the original offer, but unfortunately it was just too late in the day, and we simply did not have enough time to put the player through a medical.
“We were not prepared, as a club, to buy a player for that amount of money without him having gone through adequate medical checks.
“Grzegorz Krychowiak and Renato Sanches were both offered to the manager before their switches elsewhere, but he told us that he is happy with the squad he has.
“As a board we are behind Slaven, and he believes he has the tools to turn around our form and rectify our disappointing start to the season.”
Whether West Ham could have snared Sanches in particular is a matter for some debate, with Bayern opting to send the 20-year-old powerhouse to Wales due to the long-standing links between Swansea boss Paul Clement and the Bavarian's manager Carlo Ancelotti.