ONLY NOW that the transfer window has closed can some of the ‘near miss’ stories be unpacked as players, agents and clubs become less secretive about the ‘deals that never were’.
It seems that [West Ham](https://www.claretandhugh.info/west-ham-deliver-transfer-window-profit/) tried in vain to pull off another €20 million-plus signing – which would have been something of a coup – in the last few days of the window as Nuno sought another attacking player to bolster his resources.
Seria A side Napoli’s insider [AreaNapoli.it](https://x.com/areanapoliit) makes the claim on twitter this morning:
_“@WestHam is the club that offered €20 million for **Antonio Vergara** in the final days of the transfer window, but_ _@sscnapoli considers him unsellable._”
Vergara is the 23 year old attacking Italian u20 International midfielder with Champions League experience for Napoli. Perhaps understandably, the Italian side decide he was ‘unsellable’ and rejected West Ham’s bold but unlikely bid for their hugely talented player who could have stepped up into Lucas Paquetá’s number ten shirt.
You may recall the Italian scored last week against Chelsea in the ECL: Perhaps understandable that €20 million wasn’t accepted nor, apparently, was the player interested in walking straight into a relegation scrap in East London. Another case of _‘we tried’?_