Back in the summer off 2023, Declan Rice left West Ham United after captaining the Hammers to their first trophy since 1980, when they won the FA Cup. Rice joined Arsenal for a fee of £105m, signing a five-year deal for the Gunners.
The midfielder has been a revelation since, nominated for the 2024 Ballon d’Or on his way to helping the Gunners cement themselves as one of the finest teams in the land.
He made 51 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions in the 2023/24 season, scoring seven goals, providing 10 assists, and totalling 4,274 minutes played.
The goal since this point has been to replace Rice, which is still proving to be a hard task to this day, but it could have taken a very different route last summer, as the Hammers set their sights on some high-profile names.
Edson Alvarez's poor run of form
West Ham signed Edson Alvarez as their Rice replacement in 2023, acquiring the Mexican from Ajax for a fee of around £35.4m. He made 42 appearances for the Hammers in all competitions in 23/24, scoring two goals, providing two assists, and contributing to ten clean sheets, not bad numbers by any means.
The 26-year-old has had a poor start to the 2024/25 campaign, though, putting in multiple performances now where he has struggled to put his imprint on the game, both on and off the ball.
One of his worst performances came against Chelsea a few weeks ago, playing 54 minutes, losing possession four times, only winning one of his three ground duels, and getting a yellow card in the game. To make matters worse, he was then sent off against Liverpool in the EFL Cup defeat last week.
Things could have been very different, as Moyes had some very high profile names on the Rice replacement shortlist, one of which is now smashing it in the Premier League for someone else.
Amadou Onana, what could have been
West Ham actually had a reported £33.5m bid accepted for Amadou Onana in 2022, before the Belgian chose to join Everton instead.
The man described as a “monster” by analyst Ben Mattinson went on to make 72 appearances for the Toffees, scoring four goals and providing three assists in 5,374 minutes played.
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Onana joined Aston Villa this summer for a fee of around £50m, and the 23-year-old is now widely seen as one of the best central midfielders in the Premier League, contributing effectively in the final third, as well as protecting the backline.
Goals
0.36
0.00
Progressive Carries
1.05
0.40
Progressive Passes
3.16
4.40
Passes Attempted
39.8
50.8
Pass Completion %
89.0%
89.0%
Tackles
3.16
3.20
Blocks
1.05
1.60
Interceptions
2.02
1.25
Aerials Won
1.58
1.20
A carry is considered progressive if the ball is moved towards the opponent’s goal at least 10 yards from its starting point or is carried into the penalty area.
The stats of both midfielders are quite interesting this season, as they rank quite closely, but the opinions on their start to the campaign for their relative sides are opposite sides of the coin. However, this is largely down to the style of play for each side.
Onana has made fewer tackles and blocks, and also touches the ball less -making fewer progressive passes – than Alvarez, and this is because Villa have Youri Tielemans in the middle next to him, and it is his job to progress the ball, whilst the Belgian is there to win possession back and cover ground.
Onana has plenty of on-ball qualities that he doesn’t always have to show due to his midfield partner at Villa, but had he signed for West Ham a few years ago, he could have found himself as the natural Rice replacement. Things could have looked very different, leading to Alvarez not being signed. What might have been.
West Ham have "exciting kid" who could be Lopetegui's next Jarrod Bowen
He’s fearless and direct in the attacking areas.
ByEmilio GalantiniOct 1, 2024
