West Ham have failed with another offer to sign Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire.
David Moyes is keen on a deal for the 30-year-old, who is expected to leave Old Trafford in the summer transfer window after being stripped of the club captaincy following talks with manager Erik ten Hag.
West Ham saw an initial loan bid for Maguire rejected earlier in July, with United looking to sell the player on a permanent deal to boost their own transfer kitty.
As first reported by The Athletic on Friday, Standard Sport understands that the Hammers have now followed that up with a proposal to sign Maguire permanently for £20million, having banked £105m with the recent sale of ex-skipper Declan Rice to Arsenal.
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However, that offer has also been rejected and it is understood that could be the end of West Ham’s pursuit, with the club having preferred a loan deal and a permanent signing initially deemed an expensive risk given Maguire’s age and wage demands.
Kurt Zouma and last summer’s signing Nayef Aguerd struck up a promising partnership in central defence for Moyes towards the end of the 2022/23 season, though further strengthening in that area is still wanted with Angelo Ogbonna now 35 and Thilo Kehrer seen as a better right-back option.
The Hammers have been keen on Jonathan Tah at Bayer Leverkusen, while there was also interest in former Arsenal defender Daniel Ballard, now at Sunderland, earlier in the summer.
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Maguire, who remains a regular starter for England under Gareth Southgate but lost his first-team place at United during Ten Hag’s first season in charge and made just 16 starts across all competitions, with new signing Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane emerging as the Dutchman’s firm first-choice pairing at the back.
Maguire, an £80m signing from Leicester in the summer of 2019, was then stripped of the captaincy after three-and-a-half years with the armband by Ten Hag earlier this month and succeeded by Bruno Fernandes, declaring himself “extremely disappointed” by the decision but insisting that he remained fully committed to United moving forward.
