About a month ago – so back in the midst of all the transfer window activity, hype and hysteria with Duran, a story that crept in under the radar was to do with one of Hammers’ lesser known players who was rumoured to be on the verge of a move away from England. Busily writing about mega million deals for internationally-renown talents, many ignored the story and in the end it proved false.
Rumoured to be leaving for Italian side Atalanta with Champions’ League football this season back in August, Andy Irving was presumably dissuaded from leaving for good reason. Now that the dust has settled, I’m kind of thinking ‘Why is he still here’?
Irving – The Hammers’ enigma
I’m sure the player himself isn’t too bothered: as far as he is concerned, even watching the Hammers’ PR training video released from Rush Green (main pic) it is clear from the never ending smile on his face that Irving is living the dream.
Bought for peanuts, loaned back to Austrian outfit Klagenfurt and now pulled back to West Ham’s squad by Lopetegui after a couple of very promising games in pre-season: Realistically, with a midfield including Paqueta, Soler, Rodriguez, Alvarez, Soucek all presumably ahead of him in the queue, he;’s not going to get his boots dirty any time soon.
So I wonder what the plan was for Irving. Perhaps he here for future development and insurance if Paqueta’s situation goes pear-shaped and Soler leaves after his loan?
And – there it is: Suddenly he looks more valuable as a future Hammer. He’s still only 24 years old so he has 8 or 10 good years ahead: Let’s hope he learns well in this years’ apprenticeship – we might be very grateful for him soon enough.
With 5 goals in Klagenfurt’s last five games and having also scored for West Ham in some practice games, Irving might come off the bench when added energy and pace are needed late in a game. In the long run might he even turn out to be a somewhat more technical version of Soucek?