Not meeting Marega’s release clause suggests Pellegrini backs Hernandez to succeed

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During the summer transfer window, West Ham United were linked with a big-money swoop for Moussa Marega of Porto to bolster their striking options.

However, the Portuguese side’s president Pinto da Costa has been quoted in O Jogo, via Sport Witness, as rubbishing the idea that the Hammers even came close to activating Marega’s release clause.

He said: “Fortunately no one has triggered what is in the contract signed by FC Porto, Marega and his manager, and that has a release clause in the contract accepted by the three.

“No one paid the clause. Any player who wants to leave and has a club that pays the release clause, FC Porto can’t do anything to hold him. That was not the case. No one came to Marega’s release clause, not even close to.”

That leaves Manuel Pellegrini coming into the season with Marko Arnautovic, Javier Hernandez, summer signing Lucas Perez and Andy Carroll – who looks the odd one out up front due to his chequered injury record and the way his direct style is so at odds with the progressive style Pellegrini prefers – as his senior strikers.

Pellegrini not ordering the club to stick an expensive cherry on the top of an impressive summer cake shows could well be very good news for Hernandez in particular.

The Mexican’s first Hammers season did not work out as well as planned as Arnautovic’s transformation into a central striker and Slaven Bilic’s mistrust of him conspired to keep him out of the side.

The big-money arrival of Marega would have shunted the former Manchester United man further down the pecking order, with Pellegrini’s lack of faith potentially leading him to consider his Hammers future.

The decision not to spend big on a striker indicates Pellegrini’s faith in the Mexican and should hearten him that opportunities will be there in the first team this season, either instead of or alongside Arnautovic.

Hernandez has the quality in front of goal to repay that faith. It is down to Pellegrini to construct a squad that can provide him with enough chances to show it.