As West Ham United cruised into the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon, swatting aside a depleted Leeds with minimal fuss, David Moyes introduced Pablo Fornals and Andriy Yarmolenko to add extra energy and impetus during proceedings in the final stages.
The fact that he could bring on two players who set the club back over £40 million – one a Spain international and the other with 106 caps on his CV – spoke volumes about the strength in depth at Moyes’ disposal for the attacking midfield role.
Nikola Vlasic produced his finest performance in a West Ham shirt against Leeds. Manuel Lanzini and Jarrod Bowen, meanwhile, both found the net in a 2-0 win.
Said Benrahma, arguably the club’s most in-form player in recent weeks, certainly wasn’t missed. His AFCON-enforced absence barely registered as West Ham set up a fourth-round tie with the Royal king-slayers Kidderminster Harriers.
Signing Aleksander Golovin during the final few weeks of the January transfer window, then, would be a transfer akin to blowing your nest egg on a shiny new Samsung TV when you’ve got a perfectly good Sony at home.
Especially when you consider that West Ham are crying out for reinforcements at centre-forward, and at left-back.
A new defensive midfielder, one capable of easing the energy-sapping burden on the overworked Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek, wouldn’t go amiss either.
Who should Golovin choose; West Ham or Everton?
That could soon change, however, with the Hammers weighing up the pros and cons of a mid-season swoop.
As talented as he is, Golovin would be a signing as head-scratching as the likes of Carlos Sanchez, Lucas Perez or Jordan Hugill. Even if Yarmolenko leaves, there’s no obvious place for him at the London Stadium.
The same cannot be said of Everton though.
According to The Athletic, Rafa Benitez would love to work with a player he tried to sign at Newcastle United after Golovin exploded onto the scene at the 2018 World Cup.
With Anwar El Ghazi arriving to join Demarai Gray, Andros Townsend and Anthony Gordon at Goodison Park, Everton are in danger of becoming very one-dimensional, reliant upon shovelling the ball out wide in the hope that their array of talented widemen can produce something out of nothing.
Golovin, however, would give Everton a completely new dimension. A lock-picking number ten given the freedom to thrive with Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure charging about behind him.
One man’s waste of money could be another’s string-pulling, defence-splitting talisman.
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