West Ham head coach Nuno Espírito Santo has revealed that the club specifically identified Divine Mukasa as a player they wanted to recruit. The Manchester City loanee has rapidly progressed from what initially appeared to be a backup signing into an increasingly important member of Nuno’s first-team squad.
Mukasa underlined his growing influence by scoring the winning goal against Championship leaders Swansea City last weekend.
Speaking during his pre-Southampton press conference, Nuno explained that West Ham had recognised Mukasa’s potential before bringing him back to the club. As reported by the official West Ham website, the manager said:
“We looked at Divine and we saw a quality player who we wanted to join us. We were delighted he came here, and he’s doing well. We’re very happy to have him.”
Nuno has been impressed with Mukasa
Mukasa Has Exceeded Expectations
Mukasa has very quickly gone from a backup loan player to an integral part of Nuno Espírito Santo’s first-team squad. When West Ham signed him from Manchester City, I had no huge expectations and certainly did not anticipate him starting as many matches as he has.
Perhaps regular playing time formed part of the agreement with Manchester City. We will probably never know precisely what was negotiated behind the scenes, but the possibility of assurances concerning opportunities cannot be dismissed.
I am still not convinced the former Hammers Academy prospect is a guaranteed starter. As our recent report on West Ham’s midfield competition highlighted, Nuno has an abundance of options, and at present I would only consider Arne Engels an automatic selection for one of the central positions.
Nor have I completely made up my mind upon Mukasa’s best position. What is already clear, however, is that there is much more to come from him.
His winner against Swansea will not be his last West Ham goal this season — that is for sure.