During the last transfer window, West Ham were said to be one of the Premier League clubs who made a bid for the Benfica forward Raul Jimenez.
As reported by Record at the time, the Hammers offered €25m for half of the player’s economic rights. We pointed out why the offer seemed quite strange at the time, although the claims of contacts between the clubs were pretty reasonable.
Now it seems that West Ham officials had a chance to keep an eye on him, because according to Record today, the club had an official at Benfica’s game against Manchester United last night. This was apparently the first time they’d watched the Eagles this season.
Not able to impress
Jimenez couldn’t manage to have a great performance. The striker was far too isolated in attack, and didn’t do much when fighting for long balls against Chris Smalling and his ex-teammate Victor Lindelof.
The Mexican even made more touches when going to the wings, and that’s how he won a good foul which resulted in a yellow card for Antonio Valencia. But that was all.
With Benfica struggling a lot this season, there are two possibilities for Jimenez regarding the transfer market. He will either be too important to leave, or it’ll get to a point where he’ll be blamed for the lack of goals and then be sold. The second option would obviously give West Ham a good chance and it’s a realistic enough scenario for January.
There were only three Benfica players praised by the local media, Alex Grimaldo, Luisão and Ruben Dias, all with good defensive displays. On Manchester United’s side, Chris Smalling and Nemanja Matic were those decisive in the team’s domination of the ball possession.
West Ham scouts not alone
Record reports that 21 clubs scouted the game last night. Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Sheffield Wednesday, Milan, Inter Milan, Genoa, Verona, Napoli, Basel, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Frieburg, Montpellier, Sevilla, Eibar, Vitória Setúbal and Tondela were among them.
