David Moyes confirms West Ham bid for Harry Maguire, looking at several options
David Moyes confirmed West Ham were unable to take their interest in Harry Maguire further and says the club are looking at several options to improve the squad.
The Hammers reportedly had a £30million bid accepted for Manchester United and England centre-back Maguire but he opted to stay and fight for his place at Old Trafford (ESPN, 16 August).
Since then, West Ham have been strongly linked with moves for Mohammed Kudus at Ajax, Rennes winger Jeremy Doku, and Stuttgart defender Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Speaking at a news conference, in a video posted by Football Daily, Moyes said: “Well I don’t think I would ever really talk about players at other clubs but we did make an offer for Harry Maguire just in the end we’ve not been able to take it any further so that’s unfortunate.
“And players at other clubs we’re looking at several but obviously I’m not going to name them and talk about them.”
Cards close to his chest
It was a pretty poorly kept secret that West Ham did in fact bid for Manchester United defender Harry Maguire, but it is interesting to see a manager confirm an offer had been made.
Maguire clearly feels like he has an opportunity to get some first-team minutes at Old Trafford this term and force his way back into the thinking of manager Erik ten Hag.
He will want to hope that is the case otherwise he may rue his decision with England on course to qualify for Euro 2024 next summer and the need to be playing regularly to stay in Gareth Southgate’s plans.
But, regardless, he is not headed to the London Stadium and Moyes – very wisely – was keeping his counsel on other targets. The likes of Kudus, Doku and Mavrapanos would certainly add quality and depth to his options.
Let’s hope that West Ham can add a few more bodies to their squad before the transfer window slams shut.
In other West Ham news, a £40million bid has reportedly been made for Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke.