It took Rafa Mir just seven minutes to show Youssef En-Nesyri how it’s done.
After his Sevilla team-mate was hauled off on the hour mark, squandering two glorious opportunities as Julen Lopetegui’s side struggled to make their dominance count against Athletic Bilbao on the final day of the La Liga season, Mir took his place in the hosts attack before ruthlessly dispatching the sort of chance En Nesyri has spent most of the afternoon – and 2021/22 as a whole – dragging wide of the mark.
Few predicted, following his £14 million switch in August, that the one-time Molineux misfit would outscore his fellow striker by 13 goals to five.
And if En-Nesyri wanted to prove that his prolific, breakthrough campaign in 2020/21 was more than merely a flash-in-the-pan, well it’s fair to say he’s done little to silence the cynics.
West Ham offered £28m for Youssef En-Nesyri
According to Andalusian-based publication Estadio Deportivo, En-Nesyri has little interest in leaving Sevilla for the Premier League this summer. And that’s just as well.
Because, after finding the net five times in 29 games during a campaign in which both fitness and form has been hard to come by, the Premier League is unlikely to have much interest in him either.
Long-time admirers West Ham United failed with a £228 million bid midway through 2020/21, per The Guardian, when the spring-heeled Moroccan was in the form of his life over in Spain.
Performances like Sunday’s against Athletic Club, however, explain why En-Nesyri appears to have been placed on the backburner. Not just by West Ham but seemingly by every English-based club scouring the market for a reliable centre-forward.
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En-Nesyri’s wasteful display against West Ham in the Europa League – as Sevilla crashed out in the round-of-16 – did his reputation few favours either.
“The definition of a total failure,” AS said of En-Nesyri a couple of weeks ago, after another anonymous display.
Harsh, maybe. But it’s difficult to argue with that assessment after En-Nesyri’s goal-tally fell from 24 in 2020/21 to five in 2021/22.
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