With Andre Ayew and Diafra Sakho both leaving West Ham United during the January transfer window and with the injury-prone Andy Carroll suffering an ankle injury that will keep him out for the majority of the rest of the season, it was clear that the east London outfit needed to bring a new striker to the club before the deadline on January 31.
While Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic were both able to play in that role, the former had been struggling for form up until the end of January while the latter had just suffered a hamstring injury that would keep him on the sidelines for a couple of weeks.
Irons boss David Moyes had been linked with a few strikers throughout the month, but nothing had happened with just hours before the window slammed shut, before the club was said to be making a move for Preston North End’s Jordan Hugill.
He certainly wasn’t the centre-forward that the fans wanted with a record of 10 goals in 29 appearances in all competitions for the Championship club this term, and with 30 in 114 in total for the Lancashire outfit.
West Ham did get a £10m deal for the 25-year-old striker over the line in time, and while Moyes clearly thought Hugill could be a good signing for the club it was difficult to overlook the fact that he appeared to be something of a panic buy and perhaps not their first, second or probably even third-choice target.
Considering the club had Hernandez, Arnautovic and even Michail Antonio at their disposal to play in the centre-forward role, the east London outfit probably shouldn’t have looked to bring in someone that wasn’t better than – or at least on a par with – what they already had in their squad.
That is what they chose to do though, and supporters of the east London outfit probably would have been expecting the 25-year-old to start on the substitutes’ bench at first, looking to make an impact from there when needed.
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While he came on for 10 minutes and two minutes respectively in the 3-1 defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion and the 2-0 win against Watford at the start of February, Hugill hasn’t played a single minute of football for the Irons since then.
Even when they needed more of a goal threat against Liverpool, Swansea City and then Burnley on Saturday – all defeats by three-goal margins – the centre-forward failed to come on despite Moyes only using two of his three allocated substitutions at the Liberty Stadium, and just the one against the Clarets at the London Stadium last weekend.
You buy a striker to help you score goals when you need them, and him only playing 12 minutes of football so far is hardly a huge show of faith in his ability, and once again the supporters will point the finger at the board for splashing out £10m on a player who doesn’t look as though he is good enough to play regularly for them.
The West Ham supporters have not been happy with their recruitment ever since David Gold and David Sullivan became joint-owners of the club in 2010, and the purchase of Hugill during the January transfer window is just one in a line of many examples where they look to have got things completely wrong, with the fans believing he was a pointless signing.
They have brought striker after striker to east London in that time with the majority failing to make the grade, and it has become a real problem position for the club.
The signings of Hernandez and Arnautovic last summer hinted that they may be starting to get things right both in terms of attacking positions and with the profile of the players by moving away from bringing ones past their prime like Alvaro Arbeloa, Jose Fonte and Pablo Zabaleta to the London Stadium, but there is still lots of work for them to do.
While he has barely had a chance, Hugill is already looking like a player that isn#t good enough for West Ham – especially if they secure their Premier League status this term – and it would be no surprise to see him go already this summer – even on loan – as the club’s transfer policy continues to baffle their fans and neutrals alike.
