Usually, when it comes to regret and centre-forwards, it is Premier League outfit West Ham United who are left wishing things had turned out differently.
On this occasion, however, it appears that The Hammers might just have got themselves a bit of a lucky break.
Because, while Niclas Fullkrug and Evan Ferguson struggle to dispel the notion that every striker walking into the London Stadium arrives with a curse on his back, West Ham United were fortunate enough to miss out on a centre-forward whose decline from last season to this feels like the footballing equivalent of removing Jaws from the DVD player and immediately ploughing into Jaws Revenge.
There was already a sense of ‘jumping the shark’ when West Ham made a ‘ridiculous’ bid for Brian Brobbey during the January transfer window. An offer later revealed to be a loan, with a £30 million purchase clause included.
Even at that point, Brian Brobbey looked a shadow of the man who plundered 22 goals in his breakout year with Ajax. A few months on, West Ham missing out feels like increasingly one of those ‘bullet dodged’ sort of occasions.
Ajax told they should have accepted West Ham’s Brian Brobbey bid
Brobbey’s tally of Eredivisie strikes stands at a measly four. He has not found the net in eight league matches either, coinciding with Ajax’s remarkable collapse at the top of the standings.
A four-game winless run – including crushing defeats by Utrecht and NEC Nijmegen, plus a draw with 10-man Groningen – saw bitter rivals PSV Eindhoven leapfrog Francesco Farioli’s side into first place with only one matchday remaining.
Suddenly, from having the title within their grasp, Ajax now need to beat FC Twente on Sunday and hope PSV slip up against Sparta Rotterdam.
The always-outspoken, uber-moustached Johan Derksen, meanwhile, feels that Farioli’s first port of call should be to remove Brobbey from the firing line with the experienced Wout Weghorst waiting in the wings.
“Brobbey is done,” Derksen, a dead ringer for Landon Ricketts as any Red Dead Redemption fanatics will tell you, explains on Vandaag Inside. “Brobey is of no use to you. A striker who doesn’t score is of no use to you.
“Brobbey failed in Germany [with RB Leipzig], came back to Ajax and achieved nothing.
“They could have sold him to a club in England [West Ham] at some point. They should have done that straight away, because you don’t get anything for him anymore.”
Manchester United looked at signing Brobbey under Erik ten Hag
It is certainly hard to imagine West Ham – even a club with their track record when signing centre-forwards – returning over the summer and making another bid in the region of £30 million.
From 22 goals and 11 assists across all competitions last term, Brobbey has only seven and six this.
And it’s telling that, while West Ham eye up Strasbourg sensation Emanuel Emegha, while they renew their interest in Yuri Alberto and check out the likes of Liam Delap, Brobbey’s name has seldom featured in the gossip columns since the winter.
“[Former Manchester United and Ajax boss Erik] Ten Hag wanted to pay forty million euros for him,” adds reporter Valentijn Driessen, West Ham maybe not the only Premier League team who had a lucky escape.
“Now, they are not even paying ten million.”
At just 23, Dutch icon Rafael van der Vaart is convinced Brobbey will still come good. Yet, West Ham have had more than enough warnings at this point to stay clear.
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