We are back! But before we get to the mailbag, a friendly reminder: If you'd like your questions to be featured in a future edition, please send an email to ohanlonmailbag@gmail.com or kindly send a tweet directed to @rwohan. Lots of great questions this time -- and every other time. There were too many to get through. Apologies if I didn't get to yours.
Let's get to it.
West Ham bid 50 million plus for [Darwin] Nunez in the January transfer window, who do they target this summer, should it be someone similar to [Michail] Antonio? - Wesley D
My question: Nunez? (And to elaborate: how you see the evolution of the front 3 playing out in the medium term) - GenericFootballTweet
When the general Darwin Nunez/Premier League rumors started swirling a couple of months ago, I actually thought he would be a great fit for West Ham. He was the right age for an aging team outside of the top financial tier: at 22 years old, he could still improve and he could eventually be sent on for a massive profit. And he also tended to flourish in the moments -- fast transitions exploiting the space behind a defense -- that a team like West Ham was adept at creating. Of the 26 goals Nunez scored in the Portuguese league this season, all but a couple of the non-penalty strikes came from these exact situations.
Then, this week, West Ham were quickly priced out of the process, with reports suggesting that both Liverpool and Manchester United were willing to dole out something close to a six-figure transfer fee to acquire the Uruguayan striker. Liverpool look like the favorites, which raises an interesting question: Uh, what the hell is going on?