Were West Ham Right To Pass On Manchester City's Iheanacho?

The forward ended up at Leicester City in a £25million deal despite Irons rumours

- Greg Richardson

Cast your mind back to the summer transfer window and our pursuit of that ever-elusive entity – a 20-goal-a-season striker.

Early window rumours had us heavily linked with a whole host of strikers. Giroud was a dream target, Chelsea’s bench-warming Belgian Michy Batshuayi was linked after his previous summer snub, and Javier Hernandez seemed no more than another Sully PR stunt.

And then there was Manchester City’s Nigerian 20-year-old prodigy.

Kelechi Iheanacho had enjoyed an impressive start to his career at the Etihad. In two seasons he had amassed 64 appearances and 21 goals, boasting a goals-to-minute ratio that stood up with the best in the league.

He had played with a maturity beyond his years. His strength, pace, and clinical finishing was seeing him compared to Marcus Rashford in the debate about the Premier League’s most promising young attacker.

The arrival and rise to prominence of Gabriel Jesus, however, had somewhat halted his progress. As a result Pep was willing to let him go, we were interested and sources told us he was keen on the switch.

Then all of a sudden the deal was dead. We had withdrawn our interest and the word on the grapevine was that it was Slav’s decision to pull the plug.

The reported fee of £25 million seemed reasonable for a player of such huge potential and evident talent. He was already accustomed to the league and knew how to find the net. What was Bilic thinking?