South Africa's Benni McCarthy was keen on moving to West Ham

McCarthy was eager to join the English Premiership side on a three-year deal.

But Porto pulled out of the negotiations on Wednesday saying that they wanted more than West Ham's offer of a club-record US$11 million.

In the past McCarthy has been close to joining both Blackburn Rovers and Everton only for Porto to pull out of the negotiations.

"Benni is an excellent player who leads the line well and is a first-class finisher," West Ham coach Alan Pardew said.

"He's also a delightful man. He never wavered from his desire to join West Ham and that makes the breakdown of the deal all the more disappointing."

"There is a mixture of anger and disappointment at the club this morning, but we are going to dust ourselves down, work harder and give everything we have got to give the supporters the success they deserve."

Porto were adamant they would not release the player West Ham director Scott Duxbury

West Ham director Scott Duxbury revealed the club worked frantically behind the scenes to make the deal happen and looked to have made the breakthrough, only for Porto's change of heart to scupper the bid.

"Myself and Managing Director Paul Aldridge worked through the night on Tuesday and at 3am we thought we had a deal," Duxbury told the club's official website.

"Senior officials at Porto encouraged us to arrange a meeting with the player and his advisors with a view to concluding a deal yesterday, while they confirmed the details of the transfer with their president.

"Unfortunately, during the day Porto apologised but informed us that the deal was not acceptable to the president and that they wished to retain the player.

"During the rest of the day and early evening we frantically tried to persuade Porto to agree to a deal and this cumulated in a club record US$11 million bid being offered.

"However, Porto were adamant they would not release the player and we finally accepted defeat at about 10pm.