Real Sociedad manager David Moyes has lamented his side's failure to bring in any new players during the January transfer window.
The mid-table La Liga side are widely believed to have attempted to sign attacker Joel Campbell on loan from Arsenal, but the Costa Rica international eventually joined Villarreal. Reported potential attempts to bring over Premier League-based players including Manchester United winger Adnan Januzaj, Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam and Liverpool utility man Emre Can also came to nothing.
More concretely, a 4 million-euro move for Sweden international winger Nabil Bahoui from AIK Solna actually appeared on La Liga's official website, but the Swedish club reportedly pulled out of the agreement just 15 minutes before the Spanish transfer window shut on Friday night.
Following his side's 4-1 loss to Real Madrid, Moyes told reporters in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu mixed zone that he had been close to bringing in a few new players, but nothing happened in the end.
"We tried really hard for players," Moyes said. "We pushed to try and get two or three, we were close, we were nearly there, we lost just one on the deadline. We pushed for one or two people from England that we thought we had a chance with. We didn't just quite get what we wanted."
Moyes said that the Spanish transfer window closing on Friday, Jan 30, while teams in Europe's other top leagues having until Monday, Feb. 2, was a serious hindrance to bringing in new faces.
"I've gotta say, there's only 31 days in January and Spain actually gives you less days, because we closed last night," he said. "Of nearly all the transfers in January, a big percentage of them will be done on the last day. I don't think that's helped, you can move people out of Spain but you cannot move people in. I'm not saying that's the reason we didn't get our players, but I think it might have just given me a little chance to do something else."
A potentially serious knee injury suffered by La Real's top scorer Carlos Vela at the Bernabeu made the situation especially frustrating, Moyes said.
"I could have probably done with an extra couple of days knowing that Carlos Vela's got an injury," he said. "We'll get him scanned. It'll be a little while before the swelling has gone down, but we'll get him scanned on Sunday or Monday."
The Scot did not go into detail on exactly who had been personally handling the negotiations during recent weeks, although he suggested that club president Jokin Aperribay and sporting director Loren had also been working on deals.
"[Apperibay and Loren] have pushed hard to try and get players in, and I'm trying to get players in," Moyes said. "I'm trying to raise the standard, I'm trying to get good quality players in. Sometimes you can't get these players, either the clubs won't let you, or they choose not to come. But I want to try and raise the standard, as you can see today."
Looking longer term, Moyes said that he hoped one day to be returning to the Bernabeu with a Real Sociedad team capable of challenging Los Blancos and getting a result.
"I want to come here to Real Madrid with a team that I feel can really challenge them," he said. "Today we came here knowing that it'd be incredibly tough to get a result. I think the players did everything they could to do that. But I want to come here with a team which has a chance of getting results."
Moyes pointed to the performances of his youngsters, including his goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli, 22, midfielder Ruben Pardo, 22, and goalscorer Aritz Elustondo, 20, as positives from the game.
"We're trying to build," he said. "I thought the goalkeeper [Rulli] played really well. Ruben Pardo could have been wearing a Real Madrid jersey he was that good. The young right back [Aritz, who was substituted in the second half] just faded, but he's done really well for us. This could arguably be the ultimate test. Any team coming here was going to have a tough day."
Moyes' team had managed to hold out for a 1-0 win after going ahead at home to Barcelona in early January, but he accepted that defending an early lead at the Bernabeu was more difficult.
"I think at home you're a wee bit more in your own surroundings, you can do that," he said. "Coming here there's a feeling of a really big pitch, it's difficult to fill the spaces. We'd talked about that before the game, but we knew that whatever we did it would be a difficult day."
