Carlos Bacca is one of the world’s most prolific strikers right now. That doesn’t make light reading for struggling West Ham.
After all the euphoria of last season – the genius of Dimitri Payet, the efficiency of Manuel Lanzini, the famous wins at Anfield, the Emirates and the Etihad – 2016-17 has dragged West Ham’s stirring fanbase crashing back down to planet Earth.
Their transition from the comfortable old Boleyn Ground to the sterile, show-home bowl of the London Stadium has proved more demanding than David Gold and David Sullivan could have imagined, with results and performances becoming more worrying by the week.
Saturday’s humiliating 4-2 defeat against West Brom followed the previous Saturday’s humiliating 4-2 defeat against Watford; add a second successive defeat to Astra Giurgiu in the Europa League qualifiers into the mix and suddenly questions are being asked of previously impervious touchline don Slaven Bilic.
The fact that West Ham’s primary transfer target continues to score goals at a rapid rate of knots elsewhere, then, doesn’t make it any easier for fans to swallow. Despite the impressive signings of Argentine wonderkid Jonathan Calleri, Algerian playmaker Sofiane Feghouli, £20 million man Andre Ayew, and club-record arrival Simone Zaza, Bilic’s stuttering side could certainly do with Carlos Bacca right now.
The prolific Columbian international, who has netted 69 goals in 151 games for Sevilla and Milan since the start of 2014, was the subject of a £25.7 million bid from West Ham during the summer, according to the Express. However, the 30-year-old remained at the San Siro, determined as he is to turn Milan back into a European force. Another goal in a 2-0 win against Lazio on Tuesday night, his fourth in four Serie A games this season, suggests he’s on the right track.
Not that West Ham fans are going to be patting him on the back any time soon.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
