West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce has revealed the string of strikers they tried for over the summer.

Allardyce wrote in the London Evening Standard: "Just to confirm something, we did try very hard to get another striker in on loan during the window.

"Jermain Defoe, Loic Remy, Romelu Lukaku, Demba Ba, two players from Juventus and Austrian international Marko Arnautovic, who joined Stoke, were all on our radar at one stage or another but for varying reasons, none of them came.

"Stewart Downing, who had become available a little earlier, is an outstanding player who will be invaluable to us. I emphasise that because there has been some criticism out there that, instead of signing him, we should have waited for a striker.

"What would have been said if Stewart had gone to Newcastle or somewhere else instead of us and we had still missed out on a striker which would undoubtedly have been the case because we didn't have enough money to buy the quality we wanted?

"It's time to move on, get Stewart back from injury, find the right rehabilitation for Andy and improve what we have available."