West Ham were linked with a move for Eberechi Eze throughout the last transfer window but a move never materialised and the former QPR forward ended up joining Wednesday’s opponents Crystal Palace instead. The Hammers switched their attention to Said Benrahma instead and eventually secured the Algerian winger on a season-long loan from Brentford with a £25million obligation to buy at the end of 2020/2. Eze and Benrahma were two of the Championships outstanding players in the 2019/20 campaign. At QPR, 22-year-old Eze bagged 14 goals and eight assists across the season while also in west London at Brentford, Benrahma helped himself to 17 goals and ten assists. Moyes had scouted Eze last season while at QPR, he also took a look at left back Ryan Manning that day, but in the end decided not to pursue the Palace man, who has scored one goal and secured two assists so far this season. The Hammers boss was asked why he plumped for Benrahma over Eze and said: “I think the timing for Eze, we didn’t have the finances at the time to go for Eze when that deal was becoming available.
David Moyes said “Things only changed for us late in the window as far as finances went really because we had other priorities like we were trying to get a central defender in, we were looking at a full-back at the time as well. At that time we hadn’t got a great deal of money to spend. That changed as the window went on, [Grady] Diangana left and it just freed up a little bit of money as we went on but at the time we just weren’t there for Eze because we didn’t have the financial capabilities to do that at the time.”
