West Ham seemingly had a lucky escape by missing out on the signing of Hwang Ui-jo in the summer transfer window.
The Hammers were heavily linked with a move to sign the 49-capped South Korea international for around £7 million throughout the summer (L’Equipe).
He ended up joining Nottingham Forest instead for around £4 million though (Daily Mail).
Forest then bizarrely loaned him straight out to Olympiacos.
At the time, I thought that the South Korea international would have been a smart addition to David Moyes’s ranks at the London Stadium, for what would have been a fairly reasonable fee.
It now seems like we dodged a bullet though…
West Ham had lucky escape by not signing Hwang Ui-jo
The 30-year-old forward being loaned out straight away by Forest was a give-away that he might not have been up to the standards required for Premier League football.
And his loan spell in Greece has been incredibly poor to date.
He has bagged only one assist and zero goals in 12 appearances so far this season for Olympiacos (Transfermarkt).
Hwang Ui-jo is a hard-working striker who possesses decent pace.
I genuinely thought he would have been a really useful backup option for Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio.
Perhaps David Moyes was right to pass up on the opportunity to sign him though. Either that or we were lucky that Bordeaux rejected our bid!
In my opinion, the Hammers still need to sign another striker in January. Moyes shouldn’t be going for any Tom, Dick or Harry though.
The lucky escape that West Ham had with Hwang Ui-jo proves that.
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