Jordan Hugill played 22 minutes of Premier League football at West Ham United but he can’t stop scoring in the Championship with Queens Park Rangers.
Football is a fickle business and Jordan Hugill knows that more than most.
He was one of the Championship’s most feared strikers before that ill-fated move to West Ham United in January 2018, scoring goals for fun at a plucky Preston North End side who looked for all the world like dark horses with Hugill galloping past defenders at will.
By the time the 2017/18 season came to an end, Hugill had become little more than a punchline, the forgotten man who played just 22 minutes of Premier League football in four months at the London Stadium.
West Ham fans could be forgiven for thinking that they would never see this 6ft slab of a centre-forward in claret and blue again. But, to his eternal credit, Hugill is doing everything he can to prove that he deserves a fresh start under Manuel Pellegrini, silencing his detractors one coolly-taken finish at a time.
After a dream move to boyhood club Middlesbrough turned into a nightmare, Hugill left West Ham on loan once again this summer with Queens Park Rangers his latest destination.
And despite netting just seven times in 41 games at Boro, Hugill has scored five in six games already at his new club. His two goals in QPR’s shock 2-1 win away at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday epitomised a striker reborn; confident and clinical. The irony certainly hasn’t been lost on Middlesbrough fans.
Whisper it but Hugill is showing the sort of form that convinced West Ham to part with £10 million in the first place (BBC). Even a horror miss against Wigan Athletic, skied over the bar from barely two yards, was quickly overshadowed by a ruthless finish later on in the same balmy afternoon at Loftus Road.
“He has a point to prove,” manager Mark Warburton told West London Sport. “I watched him at Preston and he’s a handful. He’s a top Championship striker and he’s better than that, actually – he wants to go higher and he can go higher, absolutely.
Food for thought, then, for West Ham.
It goes without saying that 22 minutes spread across three substitute appearances is not enough time for a striker to prove his worth in a new league and Hugill surely deserves a fair crack of the whip before he is written off for good.
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