West Ham never got what Bristol City did with £2.25m striker | OneFootball

West Ham signed Nicky Maynard after a successful spell with Bristol City but his time at Upton Park didn't go to plan

Thanks to a long and illustrious career in the EFL, Nicky Maynard is a well-known face to football supporters around the country, but it's fair to say that supporters of some teams will have fonder memories of the striker than others.

After coming through the youth ranks at Arsenal before joining Crewe Alexandra, Maynard had his first-team breakthrough at Gresty Road, earning a move to Bristol City in 2008 after becoming a proven goalscorer at Football League level.

However, it was his spell at Ashton Gate which really saw his stock rise, and after four seasons with the Robins, he completed a switch to West Ham in January 2012, with the club fighting for Premier League promotion.

Maynard had become a fan favourite in BS3 thanks to his goals, but it's fair to say he didn't have the same impact in East London.

West Ham never got what Bristol City did with Nicky Maynard

After impressing with Crewe, Bristol City forked out a very substantial £2.25m to sign him, and it proved money well spent for the Championship side as he scored 46 goals and registered 15 assists in 132 appearances across three-and-half seasons, with one of those seasons seeing him score six goals in 13 games thanks to injury problems.

This ensured that Maynard had developed a reputation as one of the Championship's deadliest strikers, and there was inevitably interest in him as he entered the final few months of his contract at Ashton Gate.

With it becoming clearer that Maynard would not extend his contract, the club made the decision to sell him in January 2012 to avoid losing him on a free transfer the following summer, and West Ham pounced, paying around £2million to bring him to Upton Park.

He looked like the perfect signing to help the Hammers win promotion to the Premier League, and so it proved as he scored two goals and two assists to help his side to the Championship play-offs.

A further goal against Cardiff City followed in the play-off semi-final, and it looked like a coup for West Ham with Maynard helping them to the Premier League.

A goal against former side Crewe in the 2012/13 EFL Cup looked the perfect way to start the new campaign, but after failing to make a Premier League appearance, he completed a surprise permanent deal to join Cardiff City in the Championship in August 2012.

In total, Maynard made just 17 appearances for the Hammers, scoring four goals and registering two assists, and his time at the club was over before it really started to get going.

Nicky Maynard's career after leaving West Ham

Maynard made the move from the English capital to the Welsh capital in 2012, but his time with the Bluebirds wasn't a huge success, and he played just four games in their Championship-winning campaign.

He managed eight appearances in the Premier League the following season before being loaned to Wigan Athletic in January 2014, helping them to the Championship play-offs.

A permanent exit from the Cardiff City Stadium followed in the summer of 2015, and he joined MK Dons, where he spent two seasons, scoring nine times and registering three assists in 72 appearances.

Maynard then tasted Scottish football with Aberdeen, before returning to England with Bury in 2018, where he spent one season, scoring 21 goals in 41 appearances, earning a move to Mansfield Town.

A two-year spell with The Stags followed, where he scored 19 times in 56 games, spending the latter period of his time at the club on loan at Newport County, helping them reach the 2021 League Two play-off final.

His last spell in the EFL came with Tranmere Rovers in the 2021/22 season, and after five goals in 15 appearances, he left for Northern Premier League Division Macclesfield in the summer of 2022.

That brought down the curtain on Maynard's professional career, and in hindsight, his best days surely came at Bristol City.

While Maynard had ambitions of playing in the Premier League, the move to West Ham proved a poor choice, and Bristol City supporters must wonder what could have been had he stayed with them in January 2012.