West Ham: £30m star will be ‘feeling down’ about current role at London Stadium

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·29 September 2023

West Ham: £30m star will be ‘feeling down’ about current role at London Stadium

Highlights

West Ham's summer recruitment has led to intense competition for places, leaving some players with limited opportunities.
A winger, who played a key role in last season's success, has struggled for playing time and needs to make the most of the opportunities he gets.
West Ham still need to address their lack of a reliable center-forward, as their current reliance on other players to score goals is not sustainable for long-term success.

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West Ham United now have an array of attacking prowess in their roster to choose from, and transfer insider Dean Jones has name-dropped a player who will be feeling ‘let down’ by his lack of fame time, while speaking to GIVEMESPORT.

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The east London-based outfit were clever in their summer recruitment meaning competition for places is currently at a high.

On the back of last campaign’s European glory, David Moyes and his group of players will be keen to emulate that sort of jubilation this time around, too. Any chance of that looked down-and-out once their 2022/23 standout performer Declan Rice was sold for £105m to London rivals Arsenal.

Moyes and his entourage did not fret, however, and were smart in their summer spending as they brought in the likes of Mohammed Kudus, James Ward-Prowse and Edson Alvarez to re-enrich the heart of their midfield. The former’s capability to play anywhere along the front line married up with Lucas Paqueta’s fine form means opportunities have been limited for those fringe players.

Most notably with just 303 minutes of Premier League action under his belt since the new campaign got underway is Algerian forward Said Benrahma, a player who was an integral part of Moyes’ Europa Conference League-winning side, playing over 50 times for the Scotsman last term.

Someone of his quality will not be overly pleased with his constrained time on the turf and could look to pull the curtains on his brilliant 140-game career at the capital club. Formerly of Brentford, the forward made the cross-London move in 2020 after registering 57 goal contributions (30G, 27A) in 94 games for the Bees.

Said Benrahma is having to bide his time for opportunities under David Moyes – Dean Jones

On the cold-shouldered winger, transfer insider Jones insisted Benrahma has a massive part to play by suggesting he needs to make the most of every presented opportunity as they seem to be coming very few and far between. Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, he said…

“Well, it's a problem that Said Benrahma has again and again, and he's having to control his own feelings and not lash out when he probably feels like he should be in the team. And he's also having to stay calm so that when he gets the opportunities, he actually makes the most of them. “Obviously, he's going to be feeling down whenever he is nudged down the pecking order at West Ham, but it's such seems to be the story of his life at West Ham, and he's dealt with it again and again, and he just has to keep on bouncing back and proving that he deserves more game time.”

Will West Ham sign a new centre-forward in January?

Moyes and his entourage are still a few tools short of becoming a force to be reckoned with in the English topflight, most notably a reliable centre-forward. Journalist Paul Brown told GIVEMESPORT – during the transfer window – that West Ham would regret not sorting out their centre-forward woes should they fail at bringing one in.

And while they are in seventh place and scoring enough goals, their reliance on the likes of Jarrod Bowen and Ward-Prowse to find the back of the net is not sustainable. The Liverpool-linked Englishman, who signed from Hull City for £20m back in 2020, has plundered four goals and an assist in his side’s opening six matches, accruing an average 7.37 match rating from WhoScored.

The club spend much of the back end of the summer window scouring the market for a Gianluca Scamacca, who joined Atalanta for £27m in August, but failed to get a deal over the line. High up on their list was Sevilla and Morocco marksman Youssef En-Nesyri, a player that Brown has told GIVEMESPORT that West Ham have ‘missed a trick’ by not going in for him. Of course, January presents the perfect time for West Ham’s higher-ups to return to the negotiating table with the Spanish side should they look to iron out their striker options.

Michail Antonio, 33, has been West Ham’s leading man this season and has rewarded Moyes’ trust in him with two goals in six domestic outings, per Transfermarkt, though should former Manchester United boss wish to snare European football again, signing a prolific striker should be top priority.