David Moyes must make a late U-turn on his naïve and baffling decision not to sign Queens Park Rangers full-back Ryan Manning following reports the West Ham United boss is no longer keen.

What’s the word?

According to Irons insider ExWHUemployee, West Ham are now unlikely to be signing R’s star Manning before the close of the EFL transfer window on Friday as Moyes “doesn’t rate him”.

The Hammers have been linked with a potential move for the marauding left-back all summer, with The Telegraph claiming back in July that he and Everton’s Jonjoe Kenny were in Moyes’ sights as he strived to strengthen the full-back options at the London Stadium.

Interest in east London appeared to have remained strong throughout the international window and has boiled over into the domestic market, with more recent claims from the Mirror proposing on Deadline Day that a £5million bid could soon land on the table.

It was believed that the offer would be enough to tempt QPR into selling their full-back, as Moyes had scouted Manning throughout the 24-year-old’s sensational 2019/20 season that featured five goals and seven assists across all competitions.

Manning has been unable to add to his impressive numbers at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium this term as he finds himself frozen out of the first-team picture by manager Mark Warburton, who noted last month that the decision comes amid talks over a new contract with the defender otherwise a free agent next summer.

“There’s contract talks at different stages, simple as that,” Warburton said, via quotes by London News Online. “Everyone doesn’t come in at the same time, at the same stage and have the same negotiation.

“I want to make sure that players are focused on the game and there’s nothing derogatory or negative about Ryan, who trains exceptionally well and is a great lad.”

Moyes must make a U-turn

With West Ham yet to sign the left-sided full-back Moyes had hoped to secure all summer, the Irons boss must make a U-turn on his apparent decision not to land Manning’s signature.

In addition to Warburton praising the Irishman for his exceptional work rate in training despite not featuring in the league this season, former QPR head coach Steve McLaren was left stunned just weeks into his tenure by what he was seeing Manning deliver.

“Ryan is a player that I really like,” he said, via quotes by football.london. “In the first two weeks of pre-season I said to Les [Ferdinand, the R’s Director of Football]: 'wow, he's a good player’.”

Another ex-R's boss in Ian Holloway also had great things to say about the Irishman, labelling him "absolutely outstanding" back in 2017.

Manning made his sole outing of the current season to date in QPR’s 3-2 defeat at Plymouth Argyle in the Carabao Cup, where he recorded a mammoth 106 touches, played 64 accurate passes with a 91% accuracy rating, registered four key balls, took three shots, made three tackles, and won seven duels including all five ground battles and two aerial contests, per SofaScore.

It was a similar story in last season’s Championship campaign, in which he was registered as creating 12 big chances to score and averaging 77.9 touches, 1.9 key balls, 1.7 accurate crosses, 2.0 tackles, 1.7 clearances, 6.6 duels won and 0.9 successful dribbles a game.

AND in other news, the dominant displays of an £8.55m-rated West Ham star are backing the Irons into a corner concerning his long-term future.