West Ham endured a difficult Deadline Day as the Hammers failed to complete a deal for a central midfielder that many believed Slaven Bilic’s side needed, having been unsuccessful in their quest to land William Carvalho.

The Sporting Lisbon midfielder was widely reported to be edging towards a move to the Premier League but West Ham’s swoop collapsed late in the window, leaving the Hammers empty-handed on this front.

West Ham have been praised for the business they’ve completed this summer, bringing Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez to the London Stadium, but their issues are still present following three consecutive losses to start the season.

Many fans believed that further signings were needed, especially in midfield, and club chairman David Sullivan has remarkably revealed that two top players were rejected by Bilic- instead sealing a move to Premier League rivals.

“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.”

“Overall Slaven is happy with the business we have done during the summer transfer window. 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.”

Krychowiak and Sanches joined West Brom and Swansea City respectively on-loan for the season ahead, two sides who may end-up being direct rivals with West Ham this season, and the fact a deal for Carvalho wasn’t able to be completed will certainly be frustrating for the fans.