Earlier this month, West Ham United signed striker Evan Ferguson on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion for the remainder of the season.
After 16 goals in all competitions across 2022/23 and 2023/24, Ferguson quickly fell out of favour with new manager Fabian Hürzeler, only managing one goal in 13 appearances and just two games with more than 20 minutes played before his injury problems kicked in. Back with his former manager Graham Potter, he made his West Ham debut last the weekend as they lost 1-0 to Brentford.
Ferguson will hope that being reunited with Potter will help him rediscover his form that once saw him linked with Manchester United. However, he will hope he is not one of many strikers that have failed at the club in recent times.
The curious case of Gianluca Scamacca
In the summer of 2022, West Ham signed Sassuolo striker Gianluca Scamacca for a fee of up to £30.5 million. He arrived with a big reputation, after scoring 16 league goals in the 2021/22 season. However, he failed to get going in a Hammers shirt, scoring just three Premier League goals.
A mixture of poor scoring form and injuries meant he failed to make a single Premier League appearance after January, with just two further appearances in all competitions. He played 60 or more minutes just ten times in the 2022/23 season.
He joined Atalanta in August 2023 and managed to score 19 goals in 44 appearances across all competitions and winning the Europa League.
Injuries have limited him this season, with just one appearance, but he is one t of many players to struggle in East London and succeed elsewhere.
Sébastien Haller’s tremendous story
Sébastien Haller joined West Ham with arguably an even bigger reputation than Scamacca. After all, he signed from Eintracht Frankfurt for a club record price tag, that had the potential to go as high as £45 million. In two seasons with the club, he scored 33 in 77 games, including 20 in his final season.
He arrived at West Ham in the summer of 2019 and started well, with three goals in his first four game. However, he would score just three more times for the club that season with his last one coming on New Years Day.
He left at the end of season, moving to Ajax for £22.5 million. He excelled with the Dutch giants, with 47 goals in 66 games across two seasons before earning himself a move to Borussia Dortmund.
He particularly excelled in the Champions League for Ajax, becoming the first player since Marco Van Basten in 1992 to score four on their Champions League debut. He would end up as the tournament’s third top scorer in 2021/22 and also the Eredivisie top scorer.
Unfortunate personal circumstances hindered his time with Dortmund, but there is no denying how much of an outlier his West Ham spell is compared to the rest of his career that has seen over 200 goals for club and country.
Danny Ings, Benni McCarthy and Niclas Fullkrug struggles
Not every striker has left West Ham and gone on to rebuild their reputation. Benni McCarthy arrived from Blackburn Rovers for an undisclosed fee. This is after 52 goals in 140 games for the Lancashire side.
However, he failed to score a single goal for the Hammers and retired just over two years after leaving the club.
Current West Ham strikers Danny Ings and Niclas Fullkrug have also struggled despite coming in with brilliant reputations.
Ings signed from Aston Villa in a £15 million move in January 2023. He left them as their top scorer, having netted six times in 18 games. Add in his 46 goals in 100 games for Southampton and the Hammers had hopes of similar returns.
To date, he has scored just five times in 68 appearances for West Ham, with one goal in 16 games in all competitions this season. At the age of 32, he may never get back to his old self that we saw for Burnley and Southampton.
Meanwhile, Fullkrug signed in the summer after impressing in the European Championships. He also managed to score 15 in 43 games for Borussia Dortmund last season and 46 in 99 for Werder Bremen the five years before that.
With two goals in 11 games this season, he has been far from the player we saw play for Germany over the summer.
Evan Ferguson may only be on loan, but he will want to make the most of his chance to impress Potter in a Hammers shirt. He was already out of favour under Hürzeler, and a poor loan spell could further distance him from a starting spot for Brighton. He has to be careful he is not another West Ham striker to struggle.
