West Ham United and Newcastle regret as ‘hottest striker in Europe’ Serhou Guirassy explodes with £13m golden opportunity missed
Serhou Guirassy will have West Ham chiefs cursing their failure to snap him up for a bargain release clause this summer after his scoring explosion to start the season.
The inability of the Hammers to add a striker to their late-window transfer was arguably all that stood between the summer business being good and great.
Tim Steidten was sent to Brazil to do a deal for Yuri Alberto but came back empty-handed and a deadline day push for Paris Saint-Germain’s Hugo Ekitike also fell flat.
And yet VfB Stuttgart man Guirassy could have been brought in for a fraction of the cost just weeks earlier, with the 27-year-old’s stunning return of 10 goals in his first five Bundesliga appearances of the campaign now putting the Irons and others to shame.
The Guinea international has been on the radar at the London Stadium for over three years with The Sun reporting in February 2020 that West Ham were “leading the race” for the then-£20million Amiens man.
Despite scoring with regularity for Rennes and then Stuttgart since then he was available for just €15m [£13m] during the transfer window, with Kicker reporting on 11 August that his release clause in Germany had expired at midnight the night before, allowing his club to stop “shaking” at the prospect of losing him so cheap.
The German publication noted that none of West Ham, Newcastle or Nottingham Forest followed up interest to take advantage of the deal.
Guirassy had scored 14 times last season for Stuttgart in all competitions, but has already reached 11 this term to make him “the hottest striker in Europe” in the words of Manuel Veth for Forbes on 22 September.
He surely can’t keep up his current pace, outscoring illustrious names such as Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, but for such an affordable price he now looks like the biggest missed opportunity of the summer.
West Ham have started the season strongly, despite back-to-back defeats to Manchester City and Liverpool halting progress, and Michail Antonio’s form has been decent.
But with Gianluca Scamacca sold back to Serie A in the summer David Moyes wanted a striker brought in, and while Mohammed Kudus can fill in there was clearly a push to land an out-and-out forward after the Ghanian star’s arrival.
Guirassy has no doubt got all sorts of eyes on him now, and will surely cost a hell of a lot more than £13m, but between now and January Steidten may well be back in the Bundesliga looking at the possibility of a move still.
In other West Ham news, a “wonderful” Hammers ace wowed a Sky Sports pundit at Anfield but his teammate let him down.