David Moyes reveals West Ham were ‘quite far down the line’ to sign Luis Diaz before Liverpool swooped in for the Colombian international in January as the Hammers boss says he spoke to the winger and his agent on the phone

David Moyes revealed on Friday how  Liverpool swooped to sign Luiz Diaz from under Westham United’s noses in January after he had spoken to the Colombian winger and his agent on the phone. Moyes thought he had Diaz, who’s impressed since joining Liverpool for £37million.  ‘We were quite far down the line to sign him from Porto,’ the West Ham manager said on Friday.

My understanding is Liverpool were going to come in for him in the summer, and I was going to try to get him in January. 

‘I don’t know if us trying to get him in January affected Liverpool’s decision but he’s a really good player.

‘I really hoped that he was going to choose West Ham. We didn’t get him in but our ambition to sign the best players to improve West Ham is good. I want to make us better and I don’t want it to be mediocre if I can help it.

‘Sometimes you just need to be patient and hope you can get the right things at the right time. That’s the way I’ve chosen to make my decisions here, rather than bringing in people who are not quite going to fit the bill.’ It was also gathered that the Hammers boss had spoken to the Colombian winger and his agent on the phone as regards to signing for Westham United.