Sam Allardyce was on SkySports earlier and has said the club have give up on Andy Carroll as nothing much was going on, and that the Berbatov link was pure speculation and West Ham haven’t even spoke to Manchester United about him.

Regarding Carroll, Allardyce told SkySports:

“I think that we’re not in a situation where we can secure a deal with Andy or Liverpool at the moment.

“We talked to them, we had some negotiation. But at the moment there is nothing progressing forward on Andy coming to West Ham.

“We’ll just leave it as it is and move on with other players, as we have been doing on a daily basis through the summer.”

He also put to bed the rumour that Berbatov was Upton Park bound:

“That’s pure speculation in the media. I haven’t had any contact with Sir Alex.

“There was a statement from Dimitar saying he’s available for £5million. Everybody knows we’re looking for a striker so they say we’re in for him, but I’ve not had any conversations with Sir Alex.”

However, on a brighter note he did confirm that the deal for Modibo Maiga is progressing and that the club were working towards tying a deal up.