Jamie Carragher has suggested on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports (26/10/20 at 10:40 pm) that both Everton and West Ham have had to make a ‘big mistake’ in the transfer market to prove that they already have better players at their club.
The TV pundit was making reference to the in-form attacking duo – Michail Antonio and Dominic Calvert-Lewin – who have previously battled big-money signings such as, Sebastien Haller, Cenk Tosun and Moise Kean for game time.
All have struggled during their times at West Ham and Everton, respectively, with Kean going out on-loan to PSG this summer.
But last night, Carragher shared an interesting theory in the rise in Antonio and Calvert-Lewin’s form, who have seemingly had to go the long way round to prove they’re good enough.
“The thing with Antonio, and I think he’s similar to Dominic Calvert-Lewin, is that he has been at the club for a few years,” Carragher told MNF.
“There is always that question mark. Are they good enough? You always think they can do better? Everton go and spend £25-30 million on Kean. West Ham go and spend £40 million on Haller.
“It’s not until they spend the big money and you bring somebody in and you think ‘no, they are better than them’. It’s almost like they need to make a big mistake in the transfer market to say ‘okay, these lads are good enough in some ways’.
“Now, you could say ‘don’t spend the money’. Wasted the money if you like. That’s what it looks like for both clubs. Kean has moved on from Everton. I think you get that a lot with teams at that level.
“They are always chasing that striker, who they think is a superstar type, when really they have got someone on the doorstep within the club who actually ticks all those boxes.”
Calvert-Lewin’s start to the season earned him an England call recently and he marked that with perfection by scoring on his Three Lions debut.
Meanwhile, in East London, Antonio was finding the back of the net once again, but this time around, he was scoring overhead kicks against Manchester City.
It will be interesting to see if he gets his England shot during these coming weeks because there’s no doubt that he’s not far off.
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