**Igor Jésus** is a top-rated Brazilian striker I remember well, having researched and written about him in [December 2024.](https://www.claretandhugh.info/30-million-is-a-small-price-to-pay/) So, to find that the links I’d been reading for some weeks have proved correct and that he is definitely to become a ‘Forest striker after the summer internationals is irritating and incredibly frustrating as a West Ham fan.
Compared to the £116m Florian Wirtz to Liverpool deal, the strikers West Ham are looking at are Premier League pin money. Even the links with Igor Jesus in the winter were at a very attainable £30 million. Any Premier League club worth their place at the top table must be capable of paying the going rate just to keep up with the newly promoted sides.
£30 million is not a lot for a striker. Yet it seems beyond our erstwhile club.
_‘The perfect late Christmas present_‘ I think I called Jesus.. Well, happy new year, Forest fans, another West Ham ‘striker target’ gobbled up by a team with whom West Ham cannot now compete. Pathetic. What made it worse was that Jésus went out and celebrated becoming a Premier League player try scoring against PSG.
Patience, we are told, have patience. A year ago Tim Steidten was jetting across the Atlantic, “building up his network in Brazil for future signings” we were told . And the pick of them has gone to Forest. What a monumental waste of time and money that whole episode was. Whilst Forest bring in the promising Jesus and Manchester United sign Mateus Cunha, the Hammers have a £300,000 youth from Celtic.
And no transfer budget.
Not sure what happened to my promise of ‘optimism’ in the window this summer. Maybe I just need an hour on You Tube tonight watching a rerun of the Prague final.