West Ham United have fallen nicely under expectations this season after such good work throughout the earlier two years below David Moyes, they usually didn’t utilise the January switch window in addition to they probably might have.
Languishing close to the underside of the Premier League desk – West Ham have simply 18 factors from 20 matches this time period and are one level above the relegation zone – they’re in actual hazard of scraping for survival because the season enters its latter levels, regardless of back-to-back European {qualifications} and signing the likes of Lucas Paqueta (£51m) and Gianluca Scamacca (£35.5m) final summer season.
Regardless of clinching Danny Ings for £15m from Aston Villa, and Brazilian teenager Luizao for an undisclosed fee, final month, there’s a sense that the Hammers didn’t revitalise the squad to the perfect of their means. That’s particularly the case given latest injuries to the aforementioned Ings and Scamacca, with winger Maxwel Cornet additionally sidelined.
With this in thoughts, signing former Irons ace Andre Ayew on the finish of the January switch market may need been a prudent transfer for the membership, with 90min stating that the veteran ahead arrived in England after the conclusion of deadline day. As a free agent, Ayew was not sure to the constraints of the switch window and was duly in a position to focus on a transfer with a number of Premier League golf equipment.
Ultimately, West Ham had been rejected and the 33-year-old chose to affix the expansive ranks at Nottingham Forest, with the Reds now bolstered additional throughout their assault after not too long ago hitting a well timed purple patch.
Throughout his earlier spell with West Ham, after he signed from Swansea Metropolis in 2016 for a then-club report £20.5m, the Ghanaian dynamo solely managed 12 targets and 5 assists from 50 appearances. His two years in claret and blue had been largely hampered by injuries and he was unable to make the emphatic impact for which he would have been hoping.
Nonetheless, his versatility and expertise might certainly have been invaluable as West Ham try and rekindle their cohesion and fluidity, and he might have been the “game changer” – as as soon as heralded by former Irons boss Slaven Bilic – to show the tide in east London.
Additionally, given West Ham’s inclusion within the Europa Convention League – by which they return to motion within the spherical of 16 subsequent month after successful their group – including him as an additional choice up entrance would have been the proper treatment to proceed battling throughout a number of fronts, maybe salvaging a slice of prosperity from a hitherto irritating season on the London Stadium.
Whereas touchdown a 33-year-old Ayew wouldn’t have been the glitziest signing for a staff competing in Europe, he’s an achieved and skilled skilled with Premier League expertise (89 games), and as a former Irons participant he would possibly nicely have taken to life again in east London like a duck to water.
As it’s, the 113-cap Ghanaian will as an alternative assist Forest in their very own pursuit of sustaining top-flight standing, and having dropped the ball on this potential free signing, Moyes should make do with the choices who had been already at his disposal.