West Ham boss David Moyes has revealed that he held talks with Luis Diaz prior to the Colombian's move to Liverpool last month.
The Hammers failed to strengthen their squad in the January window despite Moyes' pleas, and 90min revealed that the club failed with late approaches for Leeds duo Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips.
But before West Ham turned their attentions to them, they had their eyes set firmly on Diaz - who also held discussions with Tottenham and ultimately opted on a transfer to Liverpool, settling in seamlessly at Anfield in the last month.
"I spoke to Luis Diaz on the phone, we were quite far down the line to sign him from Porto," Moyes tol his latest press conference. "My understanding was that Liverpool planned to come in in the summer, so we thought we'd try and get him in January. I don't know if that affected Liverpool's decision, but he's a really good player and we didn't get him.
"Our ambitions are to sign the best players we can to try to improve West Ham. I want to make us better, I don't want it to be mediocre if I can help it. Sometimes, you just need to be patient, hope we get the right things at the right time, and that's the way I've chosen to make my decisions here rather than bring in people who maybe don't right fit the bill."
A run of one Premier League win in their last five games has threatened to derail West Ham's bid for a top-four finish, slipping to sixth in the table.
But Moyes insists that his side simply haven't had the rub of the green so far this season and is optimistic about their chances of ending the season strongly.
"I'm not giving up on being in and around the top," he added. "We've been in the top four positions on two periods this season, we've dropped out, and our plan is to get back into it a third time and stay there. But we've got to find the best squad to get that. We've not been on our best form, but we've been resilient, dug in, tried to keep going.
"A couple of things haven't quite gone our way, we'd like to see more goals from Michail Antonio, more goals from Tomas Soucek, it would be important to us, but it's not our goal scoring issues which have been a problem, it's been conceding goals. We've been without Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma for a long period.
"Trying to get the balance right every game, be ready and be the best we can hasn't always been easy, but I think resilience, stick at it, don't give up, keep challenging the top teams, we've got big games to come, we're in two cup competitions - I do think it's a good time for West Ham."
This article was originally published on 90min as Luis Diaz held West Ham talks before Liverpool transfer.
Source: www.90min.com