West Ham manager Sam Allardyce passed up the opportunity to sign Swansea forward Wilfried Bony - with Andy Carroll brought in instead.
Allardyce revealed he had been scouting Bony when the Ivory Coast international was in prolific form at Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem in 2013 but a move never materialised as he was able to strike a deal with Liverpool to sign Carroll on a permanent basis instead.
Bony completed a move to the Swans and has been in scintillating form, scoring more Premier League goals in the calender year than any other player.
Allardyce said: " We signed Andy Carroll and it was one or the other.
"It couldn't be both and we ended up getting a deal done with Andy so our interest (in Bony) ended because we couldn't do both. We didn't have enough money in the budget that year.
"We spent big money on Andy and the rest had to be proportioned out for the considerable amount of other players we needed at the time."
While Bony has been drawing plaudits for his performances in Garry Monk's side, Carroll is still working his way back to full fitness after suffering the second long-term injury since his loan switch from Anfield was made permanent.
The duo are likely to lead the line for their respective sides when Swansea and West Ham meet at Upton Park on Sunday and Allardyce admits preventing Bony adding to his 18 league goals in 2014 will be tough.
"I think it is very difficult to stop him," he added.
"In the main it'll be about not only the defenders but the team as a whole stopping the supply. If you work hard on shutting down their midfield and wide areas and limit the supply then that is the best way forward but that won't happen all the time.
"When I say we have to get tight on him, we have to be aware of him without getting too tight because he is very strong and very skilful and to knock him off the ball is not an easy task.
"He seems to be able to roll a lot of defenders and hit the ball in the same movement. He is a threat in the air and it will be very interesting for our lads to compete against someone in such good goalscoring form and hopefully on the day we can keep him quiet."
Bony may have been one striker to pass Allardyce by but the Hammers have their own prolific forward back for this weekend.
Summer signing Diafra Sakho, who has scored six goals in eight league appearances so far, has recovered from a back injury and should be involved.
Fellow new recruit Enner Valencia could also start his first game after working his way back to fitness and, along with Carroll and his other forwards, Allardyce is pleased with the wealth of talent he has in attacking areas.
"We're looking forward to having Diafra back, I'm not sure he's ready to start a match yet," he added.
"Having Enner back, Andy getting more and more match fitness; Carlton Cole and Mauro Zarate, our attacking options are the best we have ever had.
"There are a number of combinations we can now play to break down the opposition. It was nice to score two goals to come from behind at West Brom and it has put us all in a very confident mood having won two games in a short period of time.
"Game three coming up on Sunday is now a big test for the lads, can we make it a third one in the space of eight days? For us it is trying to maintain our results record and try and get more points on the board. If we can get three, what a great week that would be."
Source: PA
