David Moyes has moved to reassure West Ham United supporters about the club's lack of transfer activity in January.
The Hammers failed with three seperate club-record bids for Leeds duo Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips, as well as Benfica striker Darwin Nunez.
Moyes' squad is looking light heading into the remainder of the season, but the Scotsman insists the club did their best.
"It wasn't for the want of trying, that's for sure," Moyes said of the lack of signings.
"West Ham supporters can be reassured that we were really ambitious in what we were trying to do. We were really ambitious in trying to get good players and players who could help us and make a difference, but it just became pretty difficult in the end and we missed out on one or two late on.
"I didn't necessarily want to be in the situation where we were bringing players in just because we kept getting it said: 'You need to buy a striker'. We've also got Jarrod Bowen and it would be very difficult to get a better back-up to Micky Antonio than Jarrod.
"We probably made three record transfer bids from the club in this January window and let's be fair, January is never really a great time.
"I also believe it's probably been tougher because we're looking at a much different level of player now and trying to attract some of the top players throughout Europe.
"I want to make sure that the supporters at West Ham can trust that I'm trying to spend the money wisely and we're trying to bring in good players but also, we don't want to bring people in who I think are only here just to pad it up. The idea in this job is to try and sign good players."
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