West Ham United spent the best part of 18 months scouring the market for a centre-forward without Maxi Gomez’s name ever really registering on their radar.
In fact, the one-time gossip column regular has been conspicuous by his absence from the Premier League picture for some time now.
A very underwhelming spell at Valencia has turned Gomez, once one of Europe’s most coveted young forwards, into a man desperate to kick-start his stuttering career. So desperate, in fact, that he jetted out to Turkey in the final hours of the window. The Turkish Super Lig; the refuge of the forgotten and the ill-fated. Gomez joins Dele Alli, Arthur Masuaku and Cenk Tosun, making his home on the banks of the black sea.
Maxi Gomez could have signed for West Ham United
To think, as recently as 2019, the Uruguay international found himself at the centre of a fiercely-contested tug-of-war. West Ham were holding one end of the rope, Valencia the other. Per Sky, both clubs agreed a £29 million fee for Gomez after 30 La Liga goals for Celta Vigo.
The chance to maintain his eye-catching progress on Spanish soil, however, was one Gomez could not turn down. Even a double-your-money offer at the London Stadium wasn’t enough to twist his arm; the old-school penalty-box predator dreaming of the Mestalla’s bright lights and rich history.
“I was relaxed. There was a lot of talk of a lot of clubs but I left it with my sister, my family,” he told The Guardian three years ago. “They were the ones who handled it all with my agents.
“(Interest from) West Ham was real. A big club. But when I found out about Valencia, I didn’t hesitate, because of the language, the club, the league.”
What could’ve been?
Three years later, Maxi Gomez shuffles out the back door to very little fanfare. That just about sums up how things went for him at Valencia. A dream move turning into, well, not quite a nightmare but certainly a bit of an ordeal.
Gomez scored just five times during 2021/22. And his deadline day departure – Gomez joins Turkish champions Trabzonspor for just £2 million – was overshadowed by the subsequent arrival of Edinson Cavani and the sale of club captain Carlos Soler to Paris Saint-Germain.
West Ham’s so-called striker ‘curse’ – over 30 have been signed during the Gold and Sullivan era and you can probably count the successes on one hand – is well documented. Would Maxi Gomez have broken the trend? Or would he have joined Sebastien Haller, Simone Zaza and Jonathan Calleri in the pantheon of ill-fated forwards who arrived amid lofty expectations and departed a disappointment?
Arriving for £29 million, departing for £2 million, this is one transfer saga West Ham fans may look back on with a sense of relief.
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