Enner Valencia wants to leave West Ham? The door’s right over there

Enner Valencia, who transferred to West Ham United after a nice showing for Ecuador in the 2014 World Cup, apparently wants to stay at Everton, despite not looking any better in royal blue than he has in claret and blue. He told Everton’s official website that he wishes to stay on Merseyside despite the lack of playing time, as he’s usually down in the pecking order with Romelu Lukaku being in fantastic form this season. He’s had only three league starts all season, with a total of 14 appearances, and scored only twice.

From a West Ham perspective, this isn’t much of a story. Despite the plague of injuries that has beset the club, no one has been rueing the day he left the club. He only managed to score 10 goals in 66 appearances for West Ham, after an impressive record of 18 goals in 23 games for Mexican club Pachuca, who he joined West Ham from in 2014 for £12 million.

Valencia has never appeared comfortable in England after his transfer and never has shown the kind of form that he has displayed for Ecuador or Pachuca at either Everton or West Ham. He is another in the long list of strikers that never worked out for West Ham. It was assumed that with Valencia gone that Ashley Fletcher would get more games in the first team, but that appears to not be the case as well.

So will Valencia stay at Everton? The rumors swirling about Lukaku possibly moving to Chelsea or Manchester United will have to be giving Everton fans heartburn, and the prospect of Valencia leading the line next year on Merseyside would probably be considered a gigantic letdown in quality. With Valencia failing to impress on his limited time at Everton, it is doubtful that they would want to activate his £14.5 million option to make the deal permanent, but crazier things have happened.