West Ham United have seen many players join the club over the years either on loan or on permanent deals.
However, regardless of how active the east London club have been in the transfer market, they haven’t always been able to secure the signature of every player they’ve been mentioned with, as happens with many clubs.
One player the Hammers had the chance to sign but didn’t was Edinson Cavani, something that can now be considered a big mistake.
Back in 2009, the striker was reported to be of interest to West Ham when he was still at Palermo, however, they ended up missing out on signing him when he eventually joined Napoli on loan in 2010 and then permanently a year later.
With three years at Napoli under his belt, the Uruguayan scored an impressive 104 goals in 138 appearances across all competitions.
As a result of his immense goalscoring efforts with Napoli, Cavani then signed to Paris Saint-Germain in the 2013 summer transfer window in a deal worth a reported fee of £55m.
During his time in France, the striker once again racked up an incredible goalscoring record by finding the back of the net 200 times in 301 appearances.
Just over seven years later, the 35-year-old eventually made his way to England but it wasn’t West Ham he was penning terms with. Instead, he signed for Manchester United on a free transfer where he’s scored 19 goals in 56 outings.
Labelled as being like a “Viking” by former Red Devils manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as well as having an “unbelievable” goal record by his former PSG teammate Marquinhos, the centre-forward has scored a total of 360 club goals throughout his impressive career.
Even on the international stage, Cavani has been a rampant goalscorer, totalling 54 goals in 130 caps for Uruguay, highlighting how deadly he has been for club and country for a significant number of years.
Taking all of this into account, with the benefit of hindsight, West Ham and then-manager Gianfranco Zola should have done more to secure the striker’s signature when they had the chance before he became one of Europe’s most prolific goalscorers.
Thinking about what the veteran may have offered the Hammers on the pitch, it would have been worth the east London club splashing the cash to bring him to England earlier in his career.
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