The news that West Ham United are currently scouting Lille’s striker Jonathan David is astounding yet suspiciously familiar.
I have lost count of the times West Ham has been linked with this player over the years, so why we would need to scout him now is a mystery. One has to remember that David has been hailed as the next big thing from the moment he left Canada and moved to Belgium in 2018.
The 24-year-old striker has been on West Ham’s radar so many times that the club must have countless dossiers and scouting reports on the player. David has been considered football’s next big thing for quite some time, and to coin a frequently used phrase on this platform, he used to be “the future.”
I would imagine that every teenager in his bedroom who plays FIFA or Football Manager on their laptops knows everything there is to know about David. So, it’s fair to assume that both Tim Steidten and Julen Lopetegui are fully aware of his qualities and attributes as a player.
I’m not suggesting for one moment that he’s a bad footballer; in fact, there have been many times when I’ve thought Jonathan David was the answer to West Ham’s problems. However, I’m unsure how much more there is to be learned from scouting him further? Let’s be honest, we are unlikely to learn anything in the next two weeks that we hadn’t noticed in the previous five years.
If he’s the right man for the job, then bring it on. West Ham has been waiting far too long for a proper replacement striker, and if Jonathan David is that man, let’s get him signed up.