West Ham United endured a surprisingly quiet transfer window given their precarious Premier League position, as the hierarchy refrained from allowing David Moyes to splash any more of their cash.

The Scotsman had previously enjoyed a summer spending spree in which eight new faces arrived at the London Stadium, as he looked to plug gaps and improve the squad.

However, with his team sat just one point outside the relegation zone, it seems the majority of these deals are yet to find their feet.

In this situation, the risk has clearly overpowered the potential reward, and they could still pay the ultimate price should results not turn in their favour.

January did see them linked with another host of potential acquisitions, but in the end, it was only really veteran striker Danny Ings who was brought in to bolster the first-team squad.

However, there were strong links as the month concluded that suggested they might be one of several teams to engage in a late swoop for Nicolo Zaniolo.

The AS Roma attacker was vying for a move from Jose Mourinho's side, and as such put the Premier League on high alert.

A main deterrent was his reported £35m valuation, of which in the end only Galatasaray were willing to negotiate over. The Turkish club secured the 23-year-old this week, which was a damning indication of his ambition and overall quality, or perhaps the lack of true options that value his quality.

It truly marks this move out as a disaster avoided for Moyes, who could not afford another lucrative transfer blunder after his summer of misspending.

There were little upsides to bringing Zaniolo to east London, especially given how he had just one Serie A goal to his name for this season.

Even looking at the year prior, where he recorded eight goals and nine assists in all competition, it somewhat shrouds another campaign where he scored just two league goals.

Despite journalist Ben Jacobs once dubbing him a "frightening talent", the fee touted a deal was financially unviable for the Hammers.

Having been similarly lauded in 2019 by Zach Lowy, for his "deadly left foot" and "top vision", his inability to translate that into tangible goals and assists makes him essentially useless for a team in a relegation battle.

He is hardly an upgrade on their host of out-of-form attackers, of which five players have more league goals than him.

Moyes may have made a few big errors in the summer transfer window, but he avoided a massive one by opting against signing Zaniolo last month.