OPINION
Many West Ham fans will be scratching their heads after Tim Vickery opted to heap praise on Luis Jimenez and imply that perhaps the London club missed a trick with the playmaker.
The BBC man, who lists BBC Brasil as his employer in his Twitter bio, heaped praise on the 34-year-old Palestino midfielder ahead of him facing River Plate and shared that he thought the Chile international never got a chance to show what he could at the Hammers.
“Jimenez never got a chance to show what he could do at West Ham, but he is a talented player,” said Vickery on talkSPORT (15:38, Wednesday April 24th).
“Talented playmaker.”
Vickery drooling over Jimenez made it sound like the 34-year-old was the one that got away for the Hammers, but does he really fit that category?
The playmaker struggled to deliver the goods in any of his 12 outings for the Hammers while on loan from Inter Milan in the 2009-2010 season and had his potential held back by constant injury problems.
While 12 appearances doesn’t sound like a lot, Jimenez never seem suited to playing English football as he just couldn’t show enough to suggest he was worth sticking with.
Also while Vickery is an expert on South-American football and knows a talent when he sees one, maybe he shouldn’t have name-dropped the Hammers in his glowing verdict.
It’s unlikely that Jimenez would have ever worked out at the Hammers, especially if you look at his career since departing the London club.
The playmaker struggled to impress in Italy with spells at Parma and Ternana before moving on to clubs like Al-Nasir, Al Gharafa and Qatar SC, so was he ever good enough to feature on a regular basis for the Hammers?
His career after his spell in London, doesn’t exactly imply the Hammers missed out on utilising Jimenez more.
So with that in mind, many West Ham fans will surely be baffled by Vickery’s verdict on Jimenez as loads have probably forgotten that he even had a spell at that club due to it being so uneventful.