Premier League duo Everton and West Ham were both reportedly keen on Hamburg’s Bundesliga striker Bobby Wood last summer.
Goals have been a problem for Everton ever since Romelu Lukaku completed that £75 million move to Manchester United over the summer.
Sandro Ramirez simply did not cut it in the Premier League following his arrival from Malaga, Oumar Niasse is hardly prolific and Cenk Tosun, the £27 million January signing from Besiktas, has needed only a month to be written off as a big-money flop.
But it is fair to say the Toffees should not be looking back at their failure to sign Hamburg’s USA international Bobby Wood, as reported by the Liverpool Echo, with any great deal of regret.
The same goes for West Ham who, according to ESPN, were also considering triggering Wood’s £10 million release clause during the summer transfer window.
With Hamburg, something of a German version of Sunderland, once again staring relegation in the face and in need of another great escape, the Hawaiian-born Wood has endured a nightmare campaign in front of goal.
The 25-year-old has now gone 17 games without hitting the back of the net, with his most recent strike coming in a 3-1 win at the similarly doomed looking Koln on only the second game of this Bundesliga season.
Wood is an aggressive and hard-working striker but you would be a brave man to bet even your pocket change on the former Ingolstadt man rustling the net in a one-on-one chance.
West Ham, then, will happily stick with Marko Arnautovic, Andy Carroll and Javier Hernandez for the time being.
And Everton can do without another profligate centre-forward.
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