Fulham boss Martin Jol has revealed that he had hoped to bring Fernando Gago to the club from Real Madrid.
The Argentina international instead decided to make the move back to his homeland to join Velez Sarsfield.
Jol has admitted that the 26-year-old was his first choice in the January transfer window, but he was happy with the deals they completed.
"It was a tough month for a lot of clubs, but in the end I feel, although it was not easy, we were quite satisfied," said Jol.
"We had a few targets, a few positions we wanted to strengthen - on the left and defensive midfield - and in the end it came off so I was quite happy.
"My first choice target was probably Fernando Gago from Real Madrid because they wanted to get rid of him, but we couldn't get that sort of quality. But I had a few options and we went for a few players."
Fulham signed Urby Emanuelson and Eyong Enoh from AC Milan and Ajax.