West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has revealed how the club almost signed William Carvalho as well as Andre Gomes this summer, only for both deals to fall through.

The Hammers made an impressive start to the summer transfer window, but failed to land a marquee central midfielder after much speculation.

Bilic admitted his frustrations, and said he offloaded a number of players in order for the club to raise enough money to sign Carvalho and Andre Gomes. But since the club failed to sign either, the boss is now concerned about his squad’s depth.

Speaking with Sky Sports in an exclusive interview, the Hammers boss said:

“I think with Carvalho it was a money issue.”

“I really wanted the player and it really looked like it was going to happen. I thought until the last minute that he was going to come. Why am I disappointed? I’m disappointed because we’ve been looking at that position for two years.”

“For that crucial position for us he was ideal and it didn’t happen.”

“One of the reasons we were offloading so many players was to raise the funds to get the budget for him and then when it didn’t happen you are frustrated. For me, if we tried everything that’s all we could have done.”

“I wanted Carvalho. We all did. We are a bit thin and I took that risk deliberately.”

“It wasn’t only Carvalho, it was also Andre Gomes, who also looked done.”

“It’s a question of injuries now. If we stay away from injuries we have enough players – and now, to be fair, we don’t have many injuries so we are okay in every department.”