For the third year in a row, Premier League outfit West Ham United have been linked with Benfica’s Mexican international striker Raul Jimenez.
West Ham United fans won’t need reminding that almost every single striker who has joined the club since Davids Gold and Sullivan completed their takeover in 2010 has failed to live up to expectations.
34 different centre forwards have arrived at West Ham in the last eight years, totalling just over £80 million. But not a single one can be considered a runaway success, with Demba Ba, the often-injured Andy Carroll and the slightly underwhelming Javier Hernandez perhaps the best of a bad lot.
The less said about Nikica Jelavic, Simone Zaza (below), Benni McCarthy, Modibo Maiga and John Carew the better. It certainly speaks volumes that West Ham’s first-choice striker right now is Marko Arnautovic, a player who arrived at the London Stadium last summer as a winger.
And all the signs suggest that Raul Jimenez, who has again been linked with a move to West Ham, will be more Ilan than Arnautovic.
The Hammers came close to signing the Mexican international back in 2015 and appear to be interested once more. O Jogo state that West Ham had scouts at Benfica’s recent 1-0 defeat to title rivals Porto with Jimenez the reason for their visit.
The 26-year-old started that game, but that is just one of four league fixtures he has played in from the start this season. Jimenez also started a grand total of seven Primeira Liga games in 2016/17, six in 2015/16 and four during a loan spell at Atletico Madrid in 2014/15.
In fact, since moving to Europe four years ago, he has scored 32 goals in 143 games.
So if West Ham are to avoid another expensive striking flop, they should think twice about signing a player Benfica demanded £45 million for last summer.
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