West Ham wanted to sign “unplayable” star who’s outscoring Bowen by a mile

West Ham United spent around £120m in the 2023/24 season, bringing five permanent signings to the club, and one loan deal for Kalvin Phillips in the January window.

This was also the same summer Declan Rice was sold to Arsenal for £105m, giving the club that conundrum to replace his midfield output in the team.

The Hammers’ biggest signing of the summer was Mohammed Kudus, signing from Ajax for a fee of around £38m. Since joining, the 24-year-old has made 55 appearances, scoring 16 goals and providing seven assists.

But there was one signing that the Hammers didn’t make in the summer of 2023/24 – one they were heavily linked with – and he’s now outscoring both Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio combined.

Bowen & Antonio’s form this season

So far this season, Bowen is leading the way for West Ham, scoring four goals and providing two assists in 13 games so far.

The Hammers captain scored 20 goals last term and their lack of goals from a recognised striker has meant the club rely more on their wide men for attacking output.

Antonio has only got one goal and one assist in his 12 appearances as the 34-year-old still struggles to provide consistent output through the middle, despite his hard work and overall impact on the team. Last season, the Jamaican striker only netted seven times in 32 games, far behind their star man in Bowen.

Unfortunately for the Irons, the man they missed out on last summer not only scored more than Bowen and Antonio combined in 2023/24 but is also outscoring them combined in 2024/25 with data analyst Ben Mattinson having labelled the “on fire” striker when analysing potential strikers for the club.

The striker West Ham could have signed

Reports in June 2023 linked Viktor Gyokeres with a move to West Ham from Coventry, with senior officials allegedly entering negotiations.

David Moyes appeared to be a big fan of Gyokeres, and the Hammers could have made a move in that summer.

One that got away

The transfers that nearly happened but never did. This article is part of Football FanCast’s One That Got Away series.

But fast-forward a tad and the 26-year-old made a move to Portuguese side, Sporting CP, for a fee of around £20m, becoming Coventry’s record sale.

In his first season in Lisbon, Gyokeres more than lived up to his billing of an “unplayable” poacher – as dubbed by former teammate Maxime Biamou – scoring a whopping 43 goals and providing 15 assists in 50 appearances, firing Sporting to the title.

Now in his second year, the Sweden international has started in the same red-hot goalscoring form, netting 23 times in 17 appearances, also providing four assists, totalling 1,436 minutes played. This is more than three times the output of Bowen and Antonio combined in this campaign.

The Swedish striker has a complete skillset, with the ability to run the channels, carry the ball himself, link play and create for others, as well as, of course, finishing chances at an exceptionally high ratio. Just look at his hat-trick against Manchester City in the Champions League last week; it’s superb stuff.

Gyokeres betters Antonio in all but one metric analysed above, with the 34-year-old completing 0.15 more progressive passes per 90, but when you put these stats side by side, you can really see how Gyokeres and Bowen would have complemented each other, and West Ham fans will wonder what could have been.

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