Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley has confirmed Manchester United playmaker Jesse Lingard wanted to move to St James' Park in the January transfer window.
Lingard, 29, pushed for an Old Trafford exit in search of regular game time but no move materialised ahead of the deadline despite interest from the Magpies and West Ham.
Red Devils interim manager Ralf Rangnick initially sanctioned the England international departing for pastures new before having a change of heart late in the window.
Lingard remains a United player with a matter of months remaining on his contract and he continues to play a minor role with just one Premier League start to his name this season.
Meanwhile, Newcastle, under the ownership of a Saudi-backed consortium, made numerous January signings to strengthen their bid to avoid relegation.
Did Ralf Rangnick make the right decision holding onto Jesse Lingard? Have your say in the comments!
The Tyenside club bought Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes and Dan Burn as well as loaning Matt Targett, giving them new faces in defence, holding midfield and up front.
Eddie Howe has since steered his side away from the drop zone with an impressive run of four wins from five games.
That is despite Newcastle failing to sign a new option in attacking midfield, with Staveley admitting they were unable to agree terms for Lingard even though the player was keen on the move.
The PCP Capital Partners chief, who owns 10 per cent of Newcastle, also claimed Lille centre-back Sven Botman was equally desperate to join her side.
"We were 19th going into the window. So we had that, an illiquid market, and the complexity of Covid-19, which meant clubs didn't want to sell because they didn't know where their squads would end up," Staveley told The Athletic.
"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, 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', well, Jesse wanted to come to us.
"We did everything. We never stopped. From the start to the finish, we did not stop working."
Newcastle extended their unbeaten run in the league to seven games with a 2-0 win at Brentford on Saturday afternoon.
Josh Dasilva was sent off for the Bees just 11 minutes into the match for a reckless challenge on Targett before Joelinton and Joe Willock struck in the first half for the visitors.
