"Can confirm": Ex drops big claim on failed deadline day move, WHU fans will be fuming - opinion

West Ham United attempted to seal a last-minute deal to bring Duvan Zapata to the London Stadium during the closing stages of transfer deadline day.

That’s according to a claim made by ExWHUemployee, who revealed in a recent post on The West Ham Way that David Moyes launched a 19:00 bid for the Atalanta centre-forward, with the Hammers even believing that they had a deal tied up for the 30-year-old.

However, the Irons insider went on to state that the Serie A side then went quiet in the negotiations, which ultimately lead to the deal for the Columbia international falling through late on in the window.

In his post, Ex said: “We can confirm that the club started working on a deal for Duvan Zapata, a Colombian forward at Atalanta at 7 pm. They thought they had got the deal done. Then, apparently, Atalanta went quiet and the deal fell through. This has been given to us by one of our main sources after the window closed. It does make you question why we start working on deals so late.”

With Moyes stating throughout the winter window that the signing of a new centre-forward was one of his primary targets, as well as the 58-year-old claiming that he had funds available to pursue his top January targets, the fact that West Ham will play the remainder of the Premier League season with only Michail Antonio as an option up top is sure to have left fans of the club fuming.

While the likes of Zapata and Darwin Nunez – who the Hammers were also reported to have made a €50m (£41.5m) deadline day offer for – would undoubtedly have made fantastic additions to the Scot’s attacking arsenal in East London, exactly why West Ham chose not to pursue their January targets until the final hours of the market is a question that Moyes must answer