Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio may be facing West Ham axe after £50m+ development – pundit
Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio will be axed from the West Ham starting XI if they do not refind their best form, according to Gabby Agbonlahor.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Aston Villa and England attacker suggested Maxwel Cornet and Gianluca Scamacca are ready-made replacements for the pair.
Neither new signing has made their full debut for the club but both came off the bench in the 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend.
Cornet moved to the London Stadium for a £17.5million fee from Burnley while Scamacca arrived from Sassuolo in a deal that could reach £35.5million.
The cost of the pair at £54million represents the bulk of the Hammers’ spending this summer and Agbonlahor has suggested they may prompt David Moyes into a change.
He told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley: “I think West Ham will be a surprise because they’ll finish ninth or 10th and they don’t get into the top-seven.
“West Ham had their chance and missed out on top-four. That will be the closest they get to top-four for a long, long time.
“I like Declan Rice, I like Antonio and I like [Aaron] Cresswell. But you look at right-back with [Vladimir] Coufal and the standard of his delivery compared to Reece James and Trent Alexander-Arnold and it’s pretty dreadful.
“Ben Johnson at centre-back. [Pablo] Fornals, [Manuel] Lanzini and [Said] Benrahma, do they really do enough?
“Scamacca the striker looks like he’s going to need really good service.
“Yes, they should have won the game against Forest but they never entertained me when I watched. [Tomas] Soucek looked off it and Bowen didn’t look great.
“I think David Moyes has got some decisions to make. Does he drop Bowen and Antonio for Scamacca and Cornet? He’s got options where he’s going to have to maybe make some changes.”
In other news, Kieran Maguire has issued an “indefensible” West Ham verdict as fans are outraged.