West Ham have missed out on a few high-profile transfer targets over the years.
Ryan Babel nearly joined West Ham from Liverpool in a swap deal involving Carlton Cole.
Meanwhile, Sam Allardyce almost signed Darren Fletcher from Manchester United for West Ham.
On top of that, West Ham were told to sign Harry Maguire before he became a star for Manchester United and England.
Maguire isn’t the only England international centre-back West Ham have missed out on either.
Indeed, speaking on the EFL Unfiltered Podcast, Phil Jagielka has spoken about how West Ham tried to sign him after he was relegated with Sheffield United in the 2000s.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
West Ham tried to sign Phil Jagielka
Jagielka spoke about how West Ham tried to sign him.
The defender says that he had a call with West Ham, but he rejected them due to the bad blood between Sheffield United and West Ham after that season.
“But it all boiled down to me wanting to go and play in the Premier League again. I didn’t want to leave Sheffield where it was, but funnily enough, Alan Kirby rang me from West Ham and said, look, we’d like to chat to you, but obviously, I don’t think you will. Imagine me going to West Ham after the Tevez and the Mascherano deal,” Jagielka said.
“So I said, look, thanks for nothing.”
“You’d never been able to go back to Sheffield!” The host said.
“Yeah, which obviously is a type of person, but obviously, Everton came back in. I went there, but even there, I went there as a utility player, but I went there as someone who couldn’t fill in. I played right back, I think first games at right back.”
What happened between West Ham and Sheffield United?
Jagielka says he rejected West Ham due to what happened with Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano.
Remarkably, this was 20 years ago now, and some fans may not be aware of what happened between Sheffield United and West Ham that season.
Back in 2006, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano were two of the hottest young properties in world football, and, for some reason, they ended up signing for a relegation-threatened West Ham side.
On the surface, these moves seemed bizarre, and, as with most things that seem too good to be true, something wasn’t quite right here.
Tevez and Mascherano were both embroiled in a third-party ownership controversy that season, and, by the letter of the law, they shouldn’t have been able to play for West Ham.
However, West Ham did manage to field Tevez and Mascherano during their relegation battle, and, lo and behold, it was a goal from Tevez on the final day of the season that kept West Ham up and sent Sheffield United down.
West Ham would end up having to pay compensation to The Blades, and, after such a sour chapter, Jagielka wasn’t keen on signing for the Hammers.