West Ham needed £40m star who’s now one of the best in Europe, he would have changed everything

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West Ham would have started the season very differently had they signed one of their most eye-catching summer targets.

Graham Potter was able to spend over £100million during the transfer window on no fewer than eight new additions, but he was sacked just five games in.

Nuno Espirito Santo was swiftly appointed as his replacement and has a difficult task on his hands, made worse by the fact that several of the recent transfers haven’t managed to find their feet yet.

West Ham have been leaking too many goals, but they have issues at the other end, too, with their forwards failing to fire. Jarrod Bowen is pulling all of the weight up top and badly needs more support.

Piling on the pain, one forward just so happened to be available after falling out of favour at his club, and he would have been the ideal antidote to the Hammers’ headache.

West Ham needed to sign Jack Grealish

Jack Grealish has been the Premier League’s best signing of the season by a country mile.

He looks reborn in the blue of Everton after being freed from his shackles at Manchester City, and even scored the 93rd-minute winner against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

The 30-year-old has provided four assists in his seven top-flight appearances and is back to his creative best, menacing full-backs and delivering for his target men.

Grealish is also earning regular minutes, having managed to string together six consecutive league starts for the first time in over two years.

According to statistics from Fbref, he is actually rubbing shoulders with the very best forwards in Europe this campaign, placing highly in the progressive passes and progressive carries categories.

That effectively means he has often played forward to release his team-mates and brought the ball into dangerous areas, where he has then been able to find an end product.

West Ham have struggled when it comes to creating chances and burying them, and in one swoop, they could have snapped up a player who has proven he could solve both issues.

The Manchester Evening News claimed his permanent price tag was set at just £40million, and with every passing week, that figure will surely tempt some of the world’s biggest clubs to move for him.

Jack Grealish on his England snub

The international break has rolled back around, and England will take on Wales and Latvia over the next week. Surprisingly, Grealish was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s squad despite his red-hot form.

But, quizzed on his absence, the 39-cap superstar delivered a classy response.

“First of all you want to play well for your club because that’s what we do every week, but obviously you want to be in the England squad,” Grealish told Sky Sports.

“But I do understand it. I spoke to the manager and I understand there’s a lot of competition, especially in that left-wing spot at the moment. Rashy’s flying, Eze, Anthony Gordon – everyone’s doing so well.

“I can’t really complain, it is what it is, and hopefully I can keep performing and influencing games.”

Provided Grealish can keep up his heroics on Merseyside, Tuchel simply will not be able to afford to ignore him for much longer.