Fulham were extremely close to securing a deal to bring Matt Grimes to Craven Cottage on Tuesday.

What's the talk?

That's according to a report by The Swansea Independent, who claim that Swansea City were looking for a fee of around £4m in order to sanction the sale of the central midfielder, comprised of a £3m down payment with the remainder paid in add-ons.

The report went on to state that Fulham's highest offer for the 26-year-old totalled £3m including add-ons, with the Welsh side rejecting this proposal and standing firm on their valuation of the former England U21 international.

Big mistake

While Fulham did manage to replace the outgoing Andre-Frank Anguissa with Nathaniel Chalobah in the final few hours of the summer transfer window, considering the sheer amount of talent Grimes appears to possess, in addition to the fact the Cottagers were a matter of a few hundred thousand pounds away from securing a deal for the midfielder, the argument that Marco Silva could well have made a big mistake in not landing the Swansea City captain is a rather easy one to make.

Indeed, over his 45 Championship appearances for the Swans last season, the £6.3m-rated man bagged two goals, registered three assists and created three big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of one shot and making 0.8 key passes per game.

The player Steve Cooper dubbed an "excellent" midfielder also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, making an average of 1.5 interceptions, 2.1 tackles, 1.3 clearances and winning 5.3 duels per league fixture.

These returns saw the £10k-per-week 26-year-old earn a highly impressive seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.04, ranking him as his club's fifth-best player in the second tier - playing a key role in Swansea's run to the play-off final.

As such, when taking into account these impressive displays, coupled with the fact that Silva could have landed the midfielder for a great deal less than his current Transfermarkt valuation, the 44-year-old Fulham boss could very easily come to regret not sanctioning a swoop for the Swansea City star on Tuesday.

In other news: Fulham confirm last-minute deadline day double swoop, Silva will be buzzing