The report that West Ham had agreed £27m for Nketiah before a hamstring injury collapsed the deal is worth examining, because the numbers really don't support that valuation.
This season at Palace he has 2 goals and 0 assists in 12 Premier League appearances, with only 2 of those as starts. He's clearly behind Mateta in the pecking order and has been used almost exclusively as a late substitute.
Zoom out to his full career and the picture doesn't improve much. Across 157 Premier League appearances he has 24 goals and 6 assists. That's roughly a goal every 6.5 league games, and a significant chunk of those appearances have been off the bench. He's never had a season where he's been a nailed-on starter at any Premier League club.
For context, Palace paid around £30m for him from Arsenal in 2024. His Transfermarkt valuation has since dropped to around €16-18m. So West Ham were essentially paying close to what Palace originally paid for a player whose value has depreciated and who isn't first choice at a mid-table side.
He's still only 26, and credit where it's due… the 97th-minute winner against Liverpool and his Conference League goal against Dynamo Kyiv show he can deliver in moments. But £27m for a player with that output profile feels like the kind of deal that only makes sense in the inflated Premier League market.
What would be a fair price for Nketiah? And is this another example of English-player premium inflating fees beyond what the stats justify?
by MatchdayMaestro
17 Comments
Why?
Scored a last minute goal against United, worth 100.
Surely ai slop
Just leave him alone will ya
Not just strikers. All positions.
Strand larson would be a better argument
1 goal in 22 games this season £43 mil
What is West Ham’s obsession with dead strikers 😭
[Is there anyone better than Eddie Nketiah?](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPHNQTVDCW8/)
What about his 90 minutes per goal/assist?
That just shows how desperate west Ham is
I was shocked when CP paid that much for Eddie
That’s the market now and west ham needed someone. They ended up paying 26m for Castellanos who doesn’t look better as of now and Lazio fans were happy with the money. Eddie has been poor at palace but a change of team and he can score goals and get them points
That Neymar to PSG causes the entire footballing economy to start over valuing players
I literally just got done watching HITC Sevens’ recent video about West Ham’s striker curse and then read this news.
I’m quite happy to get Tammy Abraham at the Villa for 18m. Any striker under 20m is tough these days
what about 70m for casemiro who was 30 years back then?
Desperate times call for desperate measures