West Ham manager Slaven Bilic has revealed that Carlos Bacca didn’t move to West Ham because he wanted a transfer to Arsenal.
The Hammers were strongly linked with a move for the Colombian frontman for much of the window and triggered his release clause.
West Ham eventually signed Jonathan Calleri and Simone Zaza to improve their attack, with Bacca remaining with AC Milan.
Bilic has since said that Bacca turned down the Hammers as he favoured a move to Arsenal.
“In this transfer window we tried to raise the bar by signing players who would have been unthinkable for our club just a few years ago,” Bilic told MilanNews.
“But as we’ve shown with the new stadium and training ground, we have the ambition to grow as a club. For certain champions it was not ‘normal’ for them to be on our shortlist even two or three years ago.
“On our list were [Alexandre] Lacazette, Zaza, Bacca and [Michy] Batshuayi, but I knew it would be difficult to buy them.
“We wanted Zaza in September of last year, but Juventus had no intention of selling him, then we turned our attention to Lacazette and then Bacca, but we weren’t the Colombian’s first choice.
“He was waiting for Arsenal or Atletico Madrid and then ultimately decided to stay at Milan, but we’re very happy because we got Zaza, who was our first choice a year ago.”
Bacca, 30, has started the season impressively, netting three goals from the opening two league games of the season for Milan.
For more stats on Carlos Bacca, click here to view his WhoScored player page
