Hold on Chicharito it may not be all over at the Hammers…in fact it may just be about to start!
If Manuel Pelligrini walks through the doors of the London Stadium as the club’s new manager this week – which now seems very likely – the little Mexican may be enjoying a far more peaceful summer than he may have been expecting.
For it seems highly improbable that a manager of the Chilean’s standing will be ready to allow players of his quality walk away.
Beyond that Pellegrini loves 4-3-3 and Chicharito would surely fit into such a formation very well as the manager’s approach at City was to play Negredo alongside Aguero in a team which pressed high.
And should things have progressed as far as we believe it’s also probable he has been having regular conversations with one of his Manchester City favourites Pablo Zabaleta regading Little Pea’s attitude on the training ground during a difficult first season.
He will probably have been happy to see Joe Hart return to City for he dropped him on several occasions when at the club in favour of Willy Caballero and was responsible for signing central defender Eliaquim Mangala back in 2014 – who was on loan at Everton last season.
The 27 year old central defender signed for City from Porto but if he were to consider bringing him to Hammers there are some warnings from the past to be borne in mind.
He was apparently bought for £31.8 million but it became clear later it was closer to £42m due to spiralling costs as a result of Mangala’s split ownership.
City found themselves having to pay in the region of £18m to two companies which owned over 40% of Mangala’s economic rights.
Pelligrini is a fan of the player so given his uncertain situation at City that may be one move although the Hammers will need to make a keen check on his ownership position.
Not Mangala please. He was shooting for the stars several years ago when he was playing for Standard Liege. Then he moved to Portugal and did well, but his adventure in England has been less than satisfying. Lack of confidence, lack of good judgement in many of his defensive positioning, injuries, just what we do not need.
Mangala has been an almighty flop. Heaven forbid.
The only system Chicharito can play well in is 4 – 4 – 1 – 1, with him playing the furthest forward, and a target man playing behind and around him ( a la Teddy Sheringham ).
I believe Pellegrini prefers his forward players with pace, power, strength and work rate.
Keep chicherito as a super sub maybe but he doesn’t offer enough in his all round game for me to justify a place in the starting eleven. He’s not a grafter. He is a good poacher at his best but his best days are probably behind him.
I agree with every post on this subject so far, but I repeat what I said yesterday:
We bought Hernandes for £16 million without the intervention of any top club in the whole world – so how good is he really? Nobody else wants him.