Fate intervened to conspire against West Ham in their original plans to bring a striker into the club this winter, according to a new claim today. Had not their original transfer choice been struck down with a hamstring injury, it is unlikely that the Hammers would have instead looked further afield and settled on Taty Castellanos and Pablo Felipe as their first choice winter signings.
Crystal Palace had, apparently, agreed a deal with West Ham United for £27 million of David Sullivan’s cash, according to the Athletic this morning. Instead of the double front line reinforcements of Taty and Pablo who have liberated West Ham’s whole playing style, had not the player been struck down by a hamstring injury, West Ham’s first signing would have been Palace’s Eddie Nketiah:
“Palace had agreed a deal in principle to sell Eddie Nketiah to West Ham for £27m early in the window only for the striker to sustain a hamstring injury in training, meaning any possible January move was moot. He has not featured this calendar year.”
Not only would Nketiah have become a Hammer..
but likely one West Ham player would have been heading to south London in a separate deal:
“They would have proposed securing West Ham’s Callum Wilson in a separate deal, but Glasner was initially unconvinced. By the time he was more open to securing the striker, Wilson had scored a winning goal against Tottenham in the middle of the month and his reintegration into the first team had scuppered any chance of him leaving.”
As we covered the day before the transfer window opened, the rumours surrounding Nketiah’s move to London Stadium were true until his hamstring injury cut short that move. You feel sorry for the player of course, but how much worse might things be if the deal had gone ahead only for Nketiah to break down after signing…
How different could the January window have looked: Even if uninjured, with Nketiah on board the Irons might have failed to discover the 4-4-2 formation that seems to have brought success and the fragile return of confidence around the club which resulted in a three (and a half) game winning streak.
We have needed grenades up front for the last 40 years. Instead we have had solo centre forwards expected do do it all themselves. Signing Eddie could have guaranteed us an extension to our lifetime of misery.
Bring on the dynamite. Excite the faithful. COYI
Well that was a lucky escape 27million and lose Callum Wilson for Nketiah would have been terrible business!
Bullet dodged, what a ridiculous target. Why am I still surprised by these clowns?