By Louis Nixon
**Mubama was an academy prodigy who many believed would be the one to solve the striker curse, but since leaving the club, he’s now having an excellent season at Stoke.**
It was a touch-and-go situation regarding Mubama. Still, many need to remember that hindsight is a wonderful thing; at the time, Mubama had been impressing and had a great record for the academy. Still, the wages he had been asking for from us were astronomical, and it would’ve been ludicrous to have granted such high demands to a player who hadn’t exactly set the world alight.
However, his move to Manchester City on a free saw us accumulate £1.2 million, and since last night, he scored a brace for the England U21s and is having a superb campaign for Stoke, which has bolstered them into third place, fighting for automatic promotion.
This season, the 21 year old has played 15 matches for Stoke this season, scoring 5 goals and providing 1 assist, more contributions than any West Ham player has managed.. He also has 5 goals in 5 matches for England’s U21’s.
The striker situation at the club hasn’t improved whatsoever, and in fact, we’ll find ourselves in a shortage when you take Fulkrug’s departure into account, so it begs the question: Should the Hammers have tried harder to retain the prospect?
The figures haven’t been released, so the truth is we’ll never know, but we’ve been stingy and scared of offering fortunes to young, talented players so it was no surprise at the time.
The majority of youth ‘prospects’ that have left the club and not gone on to shine and have been a disappointment does go to show that sometimes the fans haven’t got the full package of details, but there’s an underlying feeling that we might’ve lost out on a talent here.
It would’ve been handy to have another striker, considering we’re now relying on Wilson and Marshall. But it’s also easy to forget that a sole goal in 18 appearances doesn’t warrant an extortionate wage for a youth prospect.
Time will tell if we would’ve lost out on a big-time talent, but for now, our heads shouldn’t lie tragically in our hands