As West Ham supporters wait in hope and fear for attacking reinforcements to arrive in this month’s window, more than a couple may have glanced enviously at the weekend’s Championship action.
On Friday night, young Norwich winger Jonathan Rowe produced a wonderful, outside-of-the-boot finish in his side’s victory over Hull before, less than 24 hours later, Sunderland’s in-form Jack Clarke thrashed in a less subtle, but no less superb strike as his side were beaten at Ipswich.
The pair - and Clarke, in particular - are well-liked by the London Stadium hierarchy, but in both cases there is a sense that now may not be quite the right time to make the same midseason step a certain Jarrod Bowen did exactly four years ago.
And so, unless a deal for more oven-ready talent (Ajax’s Steven Bergwijn remains the leading target for now) can be manufactured in what is traditionally a sticky window, it will suddenly be left to a support class out of favour and out of form to keep West Ham’s season on track in the midst of their injury crisis.
That will certainly be the case at Ashton Gate tonight, where David Moyes takes his side for an FA Cup third round replay without the likes of Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Mohammed Kudus and Michail Antonio.
Some combination of Said Benrahma, Maxwel Cornet and Pablo Fornals will likely start out wide, while Danny Ings appears favourite to lead the line after youngster Divin Mubama failed to make the most of his opportunity when replacing Paqueta early in the original tie.
Every one of those players is in one way or another playing for their future. For some, that means seizing these adverse circumstances to press a case to feature more regularly even once Moyes’s first-choice front-line returns. For others, though, whose course is surely set towards the exit door whether now or in the summer, this is a timely shop window and a chance to elevate stock in sharp decline.
“That’s their job, isn’t it?” Moyes’s assistant Billy McKinlay said on Monday, when asked whether the onus was on those on the fringes to fill the void. “That’s what you do as a player, you’ve got to take your opportunity when it comes. They’re not happy when they’re not playing - no player is ever content to not be selected.
“If and when they’re give an opportunity they’ve got to come in and produce. We know they’re capable of it, they’ve been big players for us for the last number of years. We trust them, it’s just that the players who’ve been ahead of them have been producing and that’s what happens.
“It’s a good opportunity for them over the next couple of games and we’re confident they’re capable of producing.”
