Sam Allardyce passed up the opportunity to sign Wilfried Bony for West Ham United, buying Andy Carroll instead. Allardyce revealed he had been scouting Bony when the Ivory Coast international was in prolific form at the Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem in 2013 but a move never materialized as he was able to strike a deal with Liverpool to sign Carroll on a permanent basis instead.

Bony subsequently completed a move to Swansea and has been in scintillating form, scoring more Premier League goals in the calender year than any other player, and will be looking to continue that form against West Ham on Sunday.

Allardyce said: “We signed Andy Carroll and it was one or the other. It couldn’t be both and we ended up getting a deal done with Andy so our interest ended because we couldn’t do both. We didn’t have enough money in the budget that year.

“We spent big money on Andy and the rest had to be proportioned out for the considerable amount of other players we needed at the time.”