David Moyes made one very high profile mistake in the striker market at West Ham during his first spell in charge.
And that may be why he is showing more than a bit of caution this time around.
To put it very mildly Jordan Hugill will go down in Hammers history as a disastrous signing to match many others in our history.
He was finally sold to Norwich in the summer and thus far has managed just TWO GOALS in 19 appearances after making zero impact at the Irons before slipping quietly away to Queens Park Rangers on a couple of loan spells.
At £10 million some believe it was that buy which put the nail in Moyes’ coffin before the arrival of Senor Pellegrini.
One can understand some serious caution on Moyes’ part given that horrendous signing – his only signing during his first spell at the club.
And it may account for him saying he would rather work with what he’s got rather than find someone who simply isn’t good enough.
He says bids have been made but so far has had no luck. The clock ticks on and we all hope he can get the man he knows can improve us.
If he can’t, Jordan Hugill maybe a reason why
I thought Hugill was a wise signing at the time. We didn’t have much in the way of strikers, as Andy Carroll was still on the books and nobody knew that Marko Arnautovic was going to become so good in the role at the time. It just made sense to have another striker on the books as a backup. Arnautovic ended up doing the job so Hugill wasn’t needed. Not every signing is for the first team, but as an emergency signing in January, it didn’t seem bad.
Just covering his bases.
Not as bad as the £45m flop that we’ve just flogged.
He scored 15 goals for QPR last season so didn’t do too bad in the Championship recently. But that is his level.
Another thing that shouldn’t be forgotten with the Hugill signing was that up until that deadline day we were meant to be signing Slimani on loan from Leicester. But something Brady wrote in her column ****ed off Leicester and they pulled the plug. Doesn’t excuse the Hugill signing, but he was probably a name not at the top of the list of targets. But he was available at the last knockings of that window which likely swung it as we needed another forward at the time.
Or indeed the £38m flop we’ve got warming tjlhe bench at Porto. Was he ever really given a chance? Moyes had made enough quality signings in his second spell to compensate for Hugill, if indeed Hugill is something he was at fault for.
Thought Jordan Hugill might have made up into a very good player for us. Much in the same mould as Jarrod Bowen. Obviously he was never going to be our lone frontman, scoring 30 goals in a season and tracking back to help our ailing midfield and defence. But that guy doesn’t exist and never has. Initially brought in as cover? Just to fill in? David Moyes has had a bit more time to assess his squad requirements for a solid future this second time around.
COYI
During his spell at WHU I perceived him as a guy with great attitude even though he turned out to be lacking proper skills.