Former Swansea City boss Carlos Carvalhal has revealed the names of the four stars in tried to sign in order to avoid relegation during his time in South Wales.
The Portuguese took over from Paul Clement in SA1 in December 2017 with the Premier League situation looking bleak.
But a positive start to his tenure saw Swansea give themselves a big chance of survival - before it all went wrong once again.
They picked up just three points from their last nine games, and despite earlier shock wins over Arsenal and Liverpool, Swansea were relegated to the Championship.
Carvalhal, who is now coaching Rio Ave in his homeland, pointed to the difficulty of attracting players to the South Wales club while in the midst of a relegation battle.
“Nobody expected that Swansea would stay in the Premier League,” he told the Totally Football Show .
“When we start to talk with new players, good players to try to improve the team, the reality was that the players didn’t want to go to Swansea because the risk to be relegated was big.”
In January 2018 Swansea brought back Andre Ayew for a fee of around £18million, and signed Andy King on loan from Leicester City.
But Carvalhal wanted bigger names.
“I was thinking that really we need three or four players that that we wanted," he said.
"[We tried to get] Nicolas Gaitan, Kevin Gameiro, Sime Vrsaljko, Andre Silva. All these players we contacted, but nobody came. It was the reality.”
He left Swansea at the end of the campaign.
Carvalhal arrived in Landore following his departure from Sheffield Wednesday, and the manager told the Totally Football Show that he wanted to clear up a "complete lie" about him.
He said: “I like Sheffield Wednesday. I’m an Owl in this moment. When I arrived at Swansea, I mentioned that they had contact with me in the past, and the people said that I was talking with them [while still at Wednesday] and was preparing to go. It is a complete lie.
“I just want to inform all the Sheffield Wednesday fans that after the first season I was a free manager, because I sign all the time for just one season. I had invitations to go to the Championship to good clubs, and one invitation to go to the Premier League. But I preferred to stay in Sheffield, and I said to the chairman I will only leave the club when you decide, it’s not about my decision.
“So I absolutely had conversations with the other clubs because I was a free manager, but I prefer to stay [at Wednesday]. Thank you for giving me opportunity to clarify this.”
Carvalhal's ultimate ambition is to return to England for next season.
He said: “I am very happy with my my team. We started playing good football, attacking football. The fans are enthusiastic so we can do a good season in Portugal. I hope that next season we can go back to England again because that is what really I wish.”
