Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez drawing interest from Valencia
By Dan Chapman
After a disappointing spell with English Premier League club West Ham United, Chicharito looks likely to join La Liga club Valencia in hopes of consistent playing time.
After joining West Ham United in summer 2017, things looked hopeful for Javier Hernandez who hoped to continue the good form he enjoyed while at German Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen.
However things quickly turned negative for him as his coach Slaven Bilic seemed to not fancy him. Then Chicharito got injured playing for Mexico, and he was not immediately included back into the team after recovering.
When Bilic was sacked, West Ham ownership brought in David Moyes, the man who basically ran Chicharito out of Manchester United. Moyes finished out the season – with Chicharito mostly left on the bench, though he did score 8 goals – but was not brought back.
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When the 2018-2019 season kicked off, new manager Manuel Pellegrini used Chicharito as a starter from time-to-time, but Mexico’s all-time leading goal scorer did not score his first premier league goal of the season until Nov. 3 against Burnley.
Despite the positive change brought in by Pellegrini, it’s still clear that West Ham have other strikers he prefers over Chicharito such as Marko Arnautovic and Andy Caroll.
While things are not set in stone at the club or for Hernandez, There are strong rumors that Valencia are extremely interested in the player and he could well be interested in the move, if only to get a new start ahead of the 2019 national team calendar.
West Ham could be reluctant to let Chicharito go (though he only has 3 goals on the season) because Arnautovic is said to be leaving for China this month.
On the face of it, it looks likely that if he did move, he would become the most important striker for Valencia and this would help the player who needs to be playing as much as possible in order to keep within the thoughts of new El Tri coach Tata Martino.
Chicharito is in the tail end of his career now and it is clear that this January or this upcoming summer will be extremely important for him as he arguably has one more top move left. If he makes the right decision, he could remain in the mix to be on El Tri’s roster come Qatar 2022.