Newcastle United managing director Amanda Staveley says Manchester United midfielder Jesse Lingard wanted to join them last month.
Lingard saw United block the move.
Staveley recalled to the Athletic: “I think Eddie (Howe) heard me using a word I would never normally use.
"There were times when I was screaming at agents. The point is, they were doing all of it themselves.
"We were also 19th going into the window. So we had that, an illiquid market and the complexity of covid, which meant clubs didn't want to sell because they didn't know where their squads would end up.
"We had to encourage players — 'we'll be a safe place for you, we'll deliver and grow'.
“Some desperately wanted to come to us, like Sven (Botman), who still does very much and has talked very openly about that.
"Coming through all that showed us we can do it, that we can stick to our plan and if we get criticised on the last day for 'oh, you're going after Jesse (Lingard)', well, Jesse wanted to come to us.
“We did everything. We never stopped. From the start to the finish, we did not stop working."
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