Jordan Hugill became the 34th striker of the David Gold and David Sullivan era at West Ham when he joined in January from Preston.
It would be fair to say that the deadline day signing of Jordan Hugill from Preston North End during the January transfer window was hardly greeted positively by the West Ham United fans.
Perhaps that is because Hugill has never played in the Premier League, or that in three-and-a-half years with Championship outfit Preston the 25-year-old scored a solid, but unremarkable, 30 goals in 114 games.
Or it could be less to do with the striker himself, and more to do with the underwhelming and disappointing forwards signed by the Hammers since David Gold and David Sullivan took over as owners of the club in January 2010.
A Guardian piece from a little over a year ago highlighted that 32 strikers had been bought by the East Londoners since their takeover – and that is not including attacking midfielders who have played as number nines such as Michail Antonio and Marko Arnautovic.
Since then Javier Hernandez and Hugill have now arrived at the London Stadium, taking that total number to 34. Of those only four have hit double figures in Andy Carroll (32 goals in 128 games), Frederic Piquionne (11 in 62), Diafra Sakho (24 in 71) and Enner Valencia (10 in 72).
Taking Carroll’s constant string of injuries into account, it would be fair to argue that the only real successes of the Gold/Sullivan era in the position have been Sakho – who was sold to Rennes in January – and Demba Ba; who scored seven in 13 before going onto enjoy even more success at Newcastle United.
Hugill could be the player to break the mould at West Ham, but based on previous players in his role that is going to be a very tough ask.
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