Lifeline: Moyes' £61k-p/w West Ham "monster" a big winner from January transfer window - opinion

Despite the fact that David Moyes identified a new central defender as one of his primary targets for West Ham United in the January transfer window, the 58-year-old Hammers boss ultimately failed to land a new player in the position prior to Monday’s transfer deadline.

Indeed, with Angelo Ogbonna being ruled out for the season with an ACL injury, West Ham were heavily linked with a number of central defensive targets last month, the most prominent of which was Olympique de Marseille’s Duje Caleta-Car.

However, with the Irons looking to take the 25-year-old on a loan to buy deal, and the Ligue 1 outfit being unwilling to budge on a £19m (£16m) upfront transfer fee, the Irons’ move for the Croatia international fell through on the final day of the winter market.

As such, Moyes will have to play out the rest of the season with just Kurt Zouma, Craig Dawson and Issa Diop as options in the heart of his defence – something that, considering Zouma’s previous trouble with a hamstring tendon injury, as well as Dawson and Diop’s poor form while covering for the stricken first-choice pairing, could come as a major blow to West Ham’s top-four hopes this term.

Although, looking at the silver-linings from the Hammers’ failed attempts to sign a new centre-back this month, the rest of the season will now provide one player with the perfect opportunity to finally live up to the expectations about his potential following his then-club-record £22m transfer to West Ham – in the shape of Diop.

Indeed, following his move from Toulouse back in 2018, the now-25-year-old quickly established himself as a first-team regular at the London Stadium, playing 33 Premier League fixtures in his debut campaign in East London, over which the £10.8m-rated