Despite breaking the Championship ‘transfer record’ with their purchase of Celtic’s Arne Engels, it might not be the eye-catching £22 million transfer which has the most profound effect upon the Hammers’ promotion prospects.
That’s with no disrespect to Engels who looks as if he has a high ceiling and can improve week on week into a key player at the club this season.
However the lower-key loan deal which brought former West Ham academy player Divine Mukasa back to London Stadium for the season may yet prove to be the most inspired piece of business which the club carried out in the window just closed.
Hitting the ground running, the still nineteen-year old Manchester City loanee has already scored two goals for the Hammers and looks as if he could provide the attacking prowess from midfield that the Hammers haven’t really seen since Jesse Lingard’s days.
Loanee Lingard’s nine goals from midfield helped West Ham qualify for Europe: Mukasa can have an equally profound impact
If he has a similar impact upon the club’s fortunes the his will be a loan spell to remember indeed. As footballleagueworld.co.uk wrote this morning, his stats from Man City served due notice that here was the real deal waiting for an opportunity:
“Mukasa’s remarkable record for Manchester City’sU18s. During the 2024/25 campaign, he registered 16 goals and 15 assists in just 20 U18 Premier League appearances, amounting to an extraordinary 31 direct goal contributions.”
Forget the longer-term implications for a while. Whilst Lingard was firing the Hammers towards European football, the buzz and rapid rise up the table created at the time was more than enough. Let it be the same this season.
Hopefully the inspired loan of a hugely talented young man will deliver on the potential which it has already shown from his two hugely contrasting goals against Wolves, and Mukasa can have a bit of ‘Divine’ intervention on West Ham’s promotion push.
Worry about replacing him next summer when hopefully, the Hammers ‘are back’, as is a decent transfer budget. For the meantime, whoever did the deal with the Cityzens deserves a pat on the back.
That performance reminded me of a little known Real Madrid played called Mr Bellingham. I’m not getting carried away after one flash in the pan and a little luck, but it to me was definitely a similar role. Here’s to hoping we have got a Bellingham 2.0 on our hands.
A measure of how far downward Sullivan has taken this club when we talk of a Man City loanee in this way.
Man City have made multi million midfield signings in this window, one of them being only 18. If we can have a good season and Mukasa enjoys his time here he may think about staying
If we get promoted, we should buy him. He should look at the Lingard situation as a warning. Lingard chose to go back to united and force his way back into the team, which didn’t happen. He then followed the money on a short contract with Forest, that didn’t work out. Then he ended up in Korea! What might’ve been had he stayed at West Ham and carried on the momentum.
Can’t really see the comparison with Jesse going back in this case, Matt. Divine is merely gaining first team experience away from Manchester City.
Should he do well (started brilliantly) then he may enter the Manchester City first team calculations next year. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made false promises to 29 year old Lingard to encourage him to extend a contract. Jesse fell for it and was extremely disappointed.
Divine is at the beginning of something great and exciting now. Just needs to perform and progress. Really hope he does just that with us this season and helps us to promotion in style.
Thereafter ??
If he continues to shine for us and things go well for the team – would look at trying to sign him permanently in the January transfer window! City have signed plenty of midfielders so they may be open to the transfer!
If…. and it’s a VERY BIG IF…. we get promoted, then i should expect Citeh would like Mukasa to have one or two seasons as a Loanee somewhere in the Premiership sharpening the kid up to join their midfield full of 100 million plus players.
I’d have hoped our deal includes first option of him being loaned back to West Ham, if that’s what his owners want to happen with the lad
Agree totally, but it’s a double let down losing him twice in effect. Will he ever really play for City who will continue to buy any international they want?
It’s modern football but big wealthy clubs hoovering up clubs like ours academy prospects to probably sell them later harms smaller clubs.
He could have been playing for several seasons for us then sell for a big fee.
Finally, some sanity and a good article about what matters football! Yes Mukasa’s loan may be well the deal of the summer for us. It’s a a shame Moyes didn’t have the confidence to give him more minutes otherwise we would a great prospect in our ranks
David Moyes had minimal backroom staff and bigger problems to cope with at the time.
Don’t think it was down to a lack of confidence in playing the fifteen year old.