Suddenly, as Haji Wright’s hat-trick sees Frank Lampard take one giant stride towards promotion to the Premier League, it is easy to see why West Ham United were quoted such an obscene price for the Coventry City striker.
What is it they say about form being temporary and class being permanent?
Haji Wright had scored only two goals in 18 Championship matches before Coventry welcomed Middlesbrough to the West Midlands on Monday night; the league’s top two going head to head in a match which could go a long way to deciding the destination of this year’s second-tier crown.
Haji hat-trick puts Lampard’s Coventry top! 🇺🇸 🎩
How much would YOU pay to bring him to West Ham?
Now, when Coventry reportedly slapped a staggering £120 million price-tag on Wright ahead of the January transfer window, they did so in a rather heavy-handed attempt to keep those suitors – such as West Ham United – at arms’ length.
The Sky Blues were not delusional enough to feel that Wright belonged in the same bracket as Alexander Isak; the only other player in English football history to change hands for in excess of £120 million.
But top-flight football for the first time in a quarter of a century – to a club who have endured more hardship than most – is nothing short of priceless. Wright was one of the strikers on West Ham’s radar before Christmas.
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Coventry will be delighted they refused to sell Haji Wright to West Ham United
If Lazio could not compete with the wages on offer at West Ham when Taty Castellanos made the move, while Gil Vicente could not afford to turn down the £18 million forked over for Pablo Felipe, promotion means more to Coventry City than even the sort of obscene sums they could have generated by cashing in on their all-American ex-Schalke reject.
Maybe even literally, given that £120 million could very conceivably be the financial prize for promotion.
Blasting a ruthless hat-trick past Kim Hellberg’s Middlesbrough, Wright scored more goals in one Monday evening than he had managed in his previous 18 Championship outings combined. Form temporary, class permanent and all that.
He popped up at the back post to give Coventry the lead in the first-half, having already hit the post with a header. Wright, who was let go by German giants Schalke and arrived in England after spells in Turkey, Denmark and the Netherlands, then raced in behind an appropriately-named Luke Ayling to rifle in a second.
His third came from the penalty spot.
Frank Lampard and Haji Wright are heading to the Premier League
Hammers News have already confirmed that Upton Park academy graduate Frank Lampard has greatly impressed Mark Noble – West Ham’s sporting director – while guiding Coventry to the top of the Championship.
As things stand, Lampard will be a Premier League manager next season, and Haji Wright a Premier League striker.
Just not at West Ham.
“I’m delighted for Haji,” Lampard said after the Los Angeles native took his tally to 41 goals in 76 second-tier starts. “Strikers get judged so much on goals.
“He came out the blocks at the start of the season and then he had a little bit of an injury when he was away with his national team, and when he came back it sort of broke his rhythm. But there’s so much talent there.
“When you get him really feeling like this is a competitive game, he uses all his attributes and strength. He’s got great quality and we saw that tonight.”
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