Roy Hodgson revealed why Crystal Palace missed out to West Ham on signing Hull City forward Jarrod Bowen during the transfer window.

The Eagles looked set to land the coveted striker in the final days of January, but saw their rivals swoop in and take Hull’s top scorer to the London Stadium.

It’s thought Palace had hoped to take the 23-year-old on an initial loan deal until the end of the season, before making the move permanent in the summer. 

The Hammers, however, came in and offered Hull an upfront fee believed to be around £20million to take the former Hereford starlet from the KComm Stadium permanently on a five-and-a-half-year deal.

Hodgson conceded that once West Ham got in the reckoning, it was hard for them to compete for the signature of the 16-goal forward.

“He was not a player we had discussed to buy in those terms,” he said.

“There was a discussion ten days before the transfer window closed, that Hull might be considering loaning him for a period of time, with an option to buy, and that interested us.

“But there was never any question that we would go in and buy him outright.

“So when West Ham went in and bought him outright, that is something they are entitled to do, but it was not something we had considered doing."

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Missing out on Bowen contributed to a frustrating transfer window for Hodgson and Palace with West Brom’s right back, Nathan Ferguson’s failed medical on deadline day leaving Everton’s Cenk Tosun the only new face through the Selhurst Park gates last month.

“We definitely wanted a centre forward and a full-back, and I thought until Nathan had his medical that was what we had," he said.

“We would still have liked one or two more, but nothing came up that appealed to me or that we thought we could be able to buy or bring in, but of course losing Nathan to the complication through his medical, means we have only got Tosun, which is less than we would have liked to have."

It was thought that Palace and West Brom had agreed a £10milllion fee for the transfer of the Baggies Academy product before his failed medical.

Despite the deal falling through, early reports suggest they will go back in the summer to re-ignite their interest, although it’s rumoured that Tottenham are now also monitoring his progress.

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