Quite possibly the worst ‘West Ham Deadline Day deal ever’ still smarts two years on: Considering the turmoil that has overtaken the Hammers in the time since David Moyes quit the club, it says something that fans still remember it : Just £6.8 million for pushing cult hero Pablo Fornals out of the club on deadline night seemed dreadful business at the time and it certainly hasn’t improved with hindsight.
Fornals travelled back to Spain and has been in scintillating form (in between being red carded for one monstrous roundhouse punch on an opponent!) for Real Betis and has been rewarded with his first call up to the Spanish national side after a four year absence.
Hammers’ former cult hero Fornals recalled to Spain national squad after four year absence
Fornals, now 29, fell down the starting order at West Ham with the feeling always prevalent that David Moyes didn’t know where to play him: Left wing, left wing back, central midfield (just occasionally) – Fornals never complained but finally got his move back to Spain in January 2024 after being ignored completely for six months by the Hammers’ Scottish manager.
The mirror.co.uk reports Fornals’ return to favour: “Premier League cult hero earns first Spain call-up in four years to revive World Cup dream”.
Fornals will always be remembered with affection following ‘that’ goal in the Conference League semi final in 2023 but he was consistently one of the hardest working around the team during his five year tenure.
Nobody who saw it will forget his rendition of ‘West Ham are massive‘ which went viral. Frequently seen posing with hammers fans for photos, the Real Betis midfielder still harbours a soft spot for the club he spent five years at. Can’t wait to see him get back into the yellow and red of Spain and hopefully make it to the World Cup finals: It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Revisionist history in the name of bashing Moyes. The fact is that the club went out and bought players who took the minutes away from Fornals. He wasn’t getting time on the pitch anymore, so he asked out. I loved him as a player and as a locker room presence, but there was none of this lamenting when he left, and no one knew how to use him better than Moyes. It just happened like so many players.
I agree Martin moyes doesn’t know a good footballer. He doesn’t like flair players at all. I’m so glad he’s gone he was the reason we struggled under lopetegui and potter because they were lumbered with his old and overpaid players!
Sign him up
I’m sorry , but I cannot agree with the earlier comments regarding Fornals.
I cannot recall any other player that danced side to side when facing an opposing player, instead of getting stuck in.
If he was that good , may I ask why he was constantly substituted?
Probably my favourite player of recent years & I think he was wasted by Moyes, would love him back but that ain’t going to happen. I wish him all the luck & best wishes for the future, I sure hope he makes the Spain squad for the World Cup.
totally agree, one of my favourites in that team. Such a shame he couldn’t of played just ahead of Rice and Soucek, but Paqueta was preferred to him
Honest as a days long and clearly still playing at a high level, it was shortsighted to let him go when we did.
Well said….an unbelievable decision to let that man go
I just wish he’d been called up to the red and gold of Spain while playing in the claret and blue of West Ham rather than the green and white of Real Betis
(all the colours of the rainbow)