Graham Potter got his first win as West Ham United manager after he led his team to a 3-2 victory over Fulham on Tuesday.
Although the victory wasn’t the most convincing of performances, it feels like this could be the dawn of a new era for the Hammers.
It was evident that things with Julen Lopetegui weren’t going to work out and the fact Potter still has half of the winter transfer window to bolster his ranks if needed shows that the timing of his appointment was just right.
But, due to the injuries suffered by the likes of Jarrod Bowen and Niclas Fullkrug, the Englishman was left with only Danny Ings as his natural number nine.
However, in his first West Ham win over the Cottagers, the former Brighton boss chose to start Lucas Paqueta in the number nine role rather than his fellow Englishman.
Not only does this show how little faith he has in the former Southampton talisman but it makes it seem like he’s already made his mind up about where the future of the striker lies by the end of the 2024/25 season.
What does the omission of Danny Ings mean for his West Ham future?
Since the start of the term, questions were being asked about whether the Hammers had the firepower required to push their way up the league.
Last season, due to things such as injuries and not being chosen to start by David Moyes, Michail Antonio and Ings scored fewer than 10 goals across all competitions between them and left the Hammers in something of a pickle.
Their lack of goal-scoring form was likely one of the main reasons that Fullkrug was brought in but much the German has had a pletora of injury problems.
Even though Ings is the Hammers’ only natural number nine at the moment, after the performance Paqueta put in against Marco Silva’s men on Tuesday, it’s hard to see how there’s a way back into the starting XI for the 32-year-old, even with Potter now at the helm.
