WHZ View: Can Michail Antonio be considered a legend at West Ham?
Since David Moyes returned to West Ham, Michail Antonio has gone on to become one of the most important players in the squad.
The winger-turned-striker epitomises the way Moyes wants his side to play football. He leaves everything on the pitch and works hard for his teammates.
After a prolific 14 months, Antonio now finds himself just four goals away from equalling Irons icon, Paolo Di Canio, for 47 in the Premier League. The Italian maverick currently holds the record for us, but Antonio looks certain to overtake him.
Such a huge landmark has led to West Ham Zone to ask the question, can Antonio now be considered a legend at the London Stadium?
Mighty Mick
What are the reasons in which a player can be deemed a club legend? Winning trophies? Holding records? Iconic moments?
When you look at the current crop of West Ham heroes, the names that spring to mind would be Sir Trevor Brooking, Sir Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds, Tony Cottee, and Paolo Di Canio.
The first four men mentioned without question are icons at West Ham. Moore and Hurst both won the World Cup whilst with the Hammers. Brooking and Bonds both lifted two FA Cups in the most successful time of our history. Their appearance records also speak for themselves.
It’s the last two names on that list who present the argument. Cottee and Di Canio were both fabulous footballers who scored lots of goals for West Ham. But neither were able to lift any silverware with the club.
There certainly is an argument to be made for Antonio. He joined in September of 2015, in a £7million deal from Nottingham Forrest. A warrior of a player, with brute force and lightning pace, his talent was raw at the time and needed work. But it was all there for him to go on and become a great.
As of today, he’s played 172 matches for the club, scoring 45 goals and 25 assists in all competitions. When you consider most of that time has come as a winger, those are impressive stats. In his time at the club, and during his conversion into an out-and-out striker, his technical ability and footballing intelligence have improved remarkably.
In his first-ever Premier League season, Antonio scored eight goals and assisted four, in what was our last season at Upton Park. His goal contributions that season made us 11 points better off. He scored our second goal in the 3-2 victory over United in the last game at the Boleyn, arguably an iconic moment in itself.
It’s no secret that there were initial teething problems when we moved to the London Stadium. Antonio eased the pain. He was the first scorer of a Premier League goal at our new home. The number 30 bagged the winner in our 1-0 win over Bournemouth, the only man who can claim to have scored in the last game at our old home and the first game in the new.
He had another good season when the club was in turmoil. Dimitri Payet (a story for another time) decided he’d had enough, but Antonio took the burden and came top goalscorer with nine, assisting six, as he steered us away from relegation.
Persistent calf injuries hampered him over the next two seasons, but he still managed to score six and assist six in the 2018/19 campaign. All the while, Antonio was creeping up to the Premier League goalscorer record for West Ham while playing on the right-wing.
A scorer of big goals, he was at it again in April 2019. He became the first away player to score at Tottenham’s new stadium. It handed our rivals their first loss at their new ground and led to that iconic celebration.
It’s in the last 14 months where he’s really shown his worth at the club. When we were staring down the barrel at relegation, Antonio hit the form of his life. He bagged eight goals in our last seven games, including four away to Norwich, as we secured safety before the final day.
His form has carried on into this season, too. Injuries aside, he’s scored seven league goals in 17 matches in the top-flight. During 2020/21, he’s leapfrogged Trevor Sinclair and Carlton Cole in the rankings, and is just three goals behind Mark Noble’s 46. Di Canio’s record is 47, and right now, it looks only a matter of time before he breaks it.
Yes, Antonio is yet to bring silverware back to east London. But neither did Di Canio. He is regarded by many as the best player to ever wear claret and blue. Not to compare the two, they’re completely different footballers with different skillsets.
In this new era of West Ham, Mick has been the one to see us through. The beginning at the London Stadium looked very bleak indeed. Antonio stayed persistent and carried us through. The London Stadium is his home and he’s been key to us settling in there.
If Antonio does surpass Di Canio’s record, we feel the argument has to be made that he goes down in West Ham folklore.
In other West Ham news, here is a look into Billy Bonds, who is undoubtedly a Hammers legend.