To say [West Ham’s](https://www.claretandhugh.info/west-ham-transfers-frightening-striker-certainly-has-scary-price/) recruitment drive for new forwards hasn’t burst into life yet is something of an understatement. The side went into last season with three thirty-something forwards, one of whom got injured and one ended his season in December by wrapping his car around a tree in a storm. No new forwards were bought in during the window in January and the Irons had to make do and mend.
So you’d expect the club to be pretty quick out of the blocks in the summer to ‘right the wrongs’ of playing big chunks of the season with Jarrod Bowen converted into an emergency centre forward. Nothing as yet.
Perhaps the club have been waiting for more news on stricken Michail Antonio. As a fourth choice, few minutes off the bench option on a budget, I could see the rationale – but any more than that is surely overestimating Antonio’s prowess even before his leg rebuild.
However: Let night Antonio did what nobody could have envisioned in December and made a competitive return for Jamaica as an 85 th minute substitute in their CONCACAF fixture against Guatemala. I’ll bet he’s sore as hell today. No matter it was just a few minutes. To make it back from that ‘low point’ does show incredible tenacity and guts.
Five minutes won’t get him a ‘pay per play’ contract just yet though. Nor, I suspect will it secure him a deal with another Premier League club.
Jamaica have two more games before July so if Antonio does appear again, then _maybe_ that will pave the way for a short term _’emotionally driven’_ West Ham deal.
Credit to the ‘wally with the brolly’ Jamaica manager Steve McLaren- it must’ve been a scary moment allowing Antonio onto the pitch and many more cautious managers would have shied away from the risk of ‘what might have gone wrong’. Thankfully Antonio made it on – and off the pitch – in once piece so maybe he has taken a teeny step towards a short term deal.
With whom, and for how much, is still in the balance.