As two Latin American signings – Pablo Zabaleta and Javier Hernandez – arrive at West Ham in the full glare of publicity this summer, two others – Enner Valencia and Jonathan Calleri – have exited to considerably less acclaim.
On paper, the Ecuadorian World Cup striker and Boca Juniors star looked decent bets for goals, so what went wrong? Blowing Bubbles columnist Emily Pulham picks through the wreckage of the South American dreams that faded and died.
“Calleri’s experience working with West Ham legend Carlos Tevez is probably the main qualification we looked for on his cv – assuming we had indeed some research on him, prior to his arrival, and the jury is still out on that one,” she writes. “Valencia looked his strongest out on the wing, but never seemed to come to life when stood directly in front of goal. Was he played out of position at West Ham, or did he struggle to get into position in general?”.
Read this and more, including Phil Parkes on Joe Hart, George Parris’s targets for the new season, and club co-owner David Gold exclusively revealing his choice to be the next owners of West Ham in the new edition of latest edition of Blowing Bubbles