David Moyes airs surprise at West Ham transfer target failure

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West Ham manager David Moyes has aired his surprise at missing out on Jesse Lingard to Nottingham Forest this summer – with the Scot claiming that Hammers chiefs did “everything they certainly could” to secure a return for the former Manchester United star.

Lingard joined the Hammers on loan in January 2021 after failing to break into Manchester United’s first team in the first half of the 2020-21 season under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and hoped his spell in east London would revitalise his career.

He put his name back in the England hat with a series of superb displays, scoring nine goals in just 16 games as the Irons qualified for European football for the first time in five seasons under David Moyes.

And when the Warrington-born star was released by the Red Devils at the end of the season, it was thought that West Ham would secure his signature on a permanent deal.

Jesse Lingard massively impressed on loan at West Ham

But Forest swooped in and landed their man in one of the biggest transfer shocks of the window, leaving Moyes perplexed by the saga as it came to an unhappy and abrupt end for the Hammers faithful.

“I was surprised, yeah. I thought Jesse, in the end, would come here and I’ve got to say the club made him a really good offer,” Moyes said (as relayed by Nottinghamshire Live).

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“You couldn’t turn around and say David Sullivan and the owners didn’t do everything they could to get him. They certainly did.”

Instead, the Hammers signed Gianluca Scamacca and Maxwel Cornet for a combined fee of over £50m as an alternative – with big things expected of the former after his move from Sassuolo.

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