Former West Ham manager David Moyes has revealed he tried to sign Manchester United midfielder Scott McTominay after Declan Rice joined Arsenal.
Rice completed a stunning £105m move to the Gunners last summer, leaving West Ham scrambling for his replacement in midfield.
The Hammers brought in James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez but Moyes says West Ham also had ‘big interest’ in McTominay but could not get the deal over the line.
McTominay is currently in Germany for Euro 2024 and will hope to help Scotland sneak into the knockout stages ahead of their final group game against Hungary on Sunday night.
The Scots made a dismal start to the Euros, suffering a 5-1 defeat at the hands of hosts Germany, but kept their hopes alive with a 1-1 draw against Switzerland last time out.
Moyes believes former West Ham target McTominay will be the key for Scotland as they look to progress to the knockout stages of a European Championship for the first time ever.
‘Lots of managers have hard luck stories about players that get away and McTominay is one of those for me because I tried to sign him for West Ham last summer,’ Moyes told BBC Sport.
‘It was always going to be hard to replace Declan Rice with any one player when he joined Arsenal, and we were not planning to do that – we wanted to bring in a couple of midfielders instead.
‘We bought two really good players in James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez, so that was the cover, but Scott was certainly one of the players we had a big interest in as well.
‘He is a good all-round midfielder, but to me his best attributes are arriving in the area, or the edges of it, at the right time to score or make some chances.
‘McTominay was a player who I felt I needed at the time, but we didn’t quite get it over the line and he went on to score a lot of big goals for Manchester United last season instead.’
On McTominay’s role against Hungary, Moyes added: ‘Get him in the Hungary box. That has to happen as much as possible if Scotland are going to get the result they need in their last game in Group A.
‘In the past couple of years, the Manchester United man has been really important to Scotland because he can play in several different roles.
‘It was not too long ago that McTominay was as used as centre-half under Steve Clarke for a period but, more recently, he has played higher up the pitch – which is where I feel you get the best out of him.
‘When I watch him, it is his goals that stand out. He has got plenty of them for club and country in big games in the past few months, so many that it makes me think that he might end up being Scotland’s top scorer.
‘At the moment that is definitely the part of his game that we need the most.
‘Scotland have not really offered much of a threat so far at Euro 2024 and McTominay gives us the best chance of doing that on Sunday, in a game we probably need to win to reach the last 16.’
West Ham finished ninth in Moyes’ final season at the London Stadium. Spain’s Julen Lopetegui was named as the Scot’s replacement last month.
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