Amid rumours linking West Ham United with numerous strikers, the Hammers chose the wrong moment to remind fans about the signing of Ricardo Vaz Te.
The Hammers have been rumoured to be in the hunt for Andre Belotti and Krzysztof Piatek during the January window, but Torino refused to negotiate and AC Milan beat them to the punch for the Poland international.
Celta Vigo’s Maxi Gomez then crept into the frame as the leading contender to be Manuel Pellegrini’s next great hitman at the London Stadium, but the La Liga side walked away from negotiations the moment they dropped into the relegation zone.
Attempts four and five at finding another striker saw West Ham look to London rivals Chelsea as a potential saviour, but Olivier Giroud was not on offer and once again Michy Batshuayi wanted nothing to do with the Hammers, which is according to Football.London.
The endless speculation with strikers may not have crossed the club’s mind, however, when they tweeted on Deadline Day that it had been seven years since Vaz Te became a Hammer.
We signed Ricardo Vaz Te #OnThisDay in 2️⃣0️⃣1️⃣2️⃣!
We still get goosebumps watching this moment… ???? pic.twitter.com/VlhQYGDrgv
— West Ham United (@WestHamUtd) January 31, 2019
Some fans were delighted to turn thoughts to the times the Portuguese forward scored the winner in the play-off final in 2012, but, like one fan who noted that the alert for the tweet led him to believe they had signed someone, many took frustration over the current window’s activity…
Thought we’d resigned him when I got that notification. Wasn’t even upset.
— Will Dixon (@dixoin554) January 31, 2019
The only January buy that has ever been worth it
— forbes ⚒???? (@ChampagneForbes) January 31, 2019
What a deadline day signing this was
— calum vango (@calumv89) January 31, 2019
Can we sign a few others ‘on this day’ please
— Łukasz Fabiański (@FAB1anski) January 31, 2019
Will we be signing anyone ‘On This Day’ today?
— ⚒ Michael ⚒ (@mhenly22) January 31, 2019
All the talk of these signings. We will sign no one.
— Deanhegarty (@Deanhegarty2) January 31, 2019