West Ham United assistant manager Kevin Nolan has claimed that his club were "very close" to signing Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire during the summer transfer window.
The Hammers are believed to have had a £30m bid accepted for the England international, but he ultimately remained at Old Trafford past the transfer deadline.
Maguire has said that he 'did not come to an agreement' with West Ham over a move, with the 30-year-old believed to have made it clear that he wanted to remain with Erik ten Hag's side.
"How can I put this? We just didn't come to an agreement," Maguire told The Express. "They were happy for me to stay and I was happy to fight for my place. I want to do that and every time I train or play I will give everything.
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"I know, at the moment, when I have not started a game in the first four games of the season, the story comes to me. I want to play games, I want to play football.
"The first four weeks were hard because it was one game a week and the manager didn't select me but we have lots of games coming up now and I am sure I will play lots of games."
However, Nolan has claimed that a deal to bring Maguire to the London Stadium was "very close".
"I think it was very close, I was a bit upset that we didn't make it [happen]," he told talkSPORT. "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.
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"I think the gaffer was in contact with Harry, his agent and everything else but yeah, obviously we then had to move onto our next target."
Maguire made his first Premier League appearance of the season as a substitute in Man United's 3-1 defeat to Arsenal before the international break.
As expected, the centre-back was then involved for England in their two international games, starting against Ukraine before coming off the bench against Scotland last time out.
Maguire scored an own goal in England's 3-1 victory over Scotland, and his mother has taken to social media to hit out at the ongoing criticism of her son.
Matt Law
