Maxwel Cornet is a Saint now but his disappearance from the bench does not signify a personal tragedy. It was instead the inevitable doom that befalls all forwards that come to West Ham in our long line of failed frontmen.
We’ve had 31 forwards since 2010 to be exact. Can you name five who have actually been consistently successful for us out of that number? Cornet has gone on loan to Southampton – a side currently captained by former West Ham hopeful Flynn Downes – a player I was also excited about but who also couldn’t see a route to success in claret and blue.
And as many will expect, this is a long exit for Maxwel who failed to make any impact at West Ham only scoring one goal in two years and 22 league appearances. Moyes brought Cornet in from Burnley as a proven Premier League winger/forward having scored nine goals in 28 appearances the season before coming to London Stadium, and as a pacy player who could play the wing and play as a forward, I was excited.
I thought he might be able to conform to Moyes’ roving striker roll and adapt, and as hopeful as I was, I should have studied more about the player as he tends to be best partnered with a second forward as he was in Burnley, not unlike the other proven striker we bought that season in Danny Ings.
While I don’t think the decision to buy the £17.5 million plus player was the wrong one, and while Cornet did not personally disappoint me, besides often being offside for potential goals, the West Ham faithful couldn’t help but be disappointed with the long standing calf injury he seemed to suffer from and the lack of game time that Moyes gave him to truly see his potential.
I assume many West Ham fans feel about Cornet as I do – a willingness to get him off the books with hopes of bringing in new players, not due to his poor performance, but just from his non performance and our quick ability to accept resignation to defeat in hopeful players that do not take root.
It’s easier to just let go and move on to the next now when we’re so used to failure in our forwards. I can’t even say I miss any of the supposed stars brought to shine in east London as they never even made much of a glimmer: Sebastian Haller and Gianluca Scamacca are fleeting memories of hot air that raised our bubbles for a moment but popped without a sustained uplift.
Sometimes I miss Arnaoutovic, with his prowess at the point, pushing off defenders, executing laser precision goals followed up by a healthy taunt, but even Arnie didn’t see as much success as expected. So I’ll do as I do for most players that go out on loan – forget about them until the transfer market comes back up and hope we don’t lose an arm and a leg on an expected transfer.
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