Six months before West Ham paid roughly £20 million (around €23 million with add-ons) to sign him, Pablo Felipe cost Gil Vicente just €250,000 to sign permanently from Famalicão. That kind of markup was always going to bring pressure most 22-year-olds never have to deal with. Six months into life in East London, that pressure has intensified, and doubts persist about whether West Ham got their business right.
Whatever else can be said about Pablo, the raw goal return has been brutal. He arrived from Gil Vicente in January on the back of ten goals in 13 Primeira Liga appearances, his form good enough that his conversion rate stacked up against Erling Haaland's and Harry Kane's. Since then, across 17 appearances for West Ham in all competitions, he has yet to put one in between the posts. By the spring, his goalless run had stretched past 13 Premier League games, worse than West Ham strikers like Nikica Jelavic, Ashley Fletcher and Jonathan Calleri managed before finding their feet. His only end product to date is a single assist, in a 4-0 win over Wolves in April. On signing, Pablo promised he'd "give my all for this club, leaving everything on the pitch," and by most accounts he's kept that word; it's the end product that's missing. Pre-season so far hasn’t been kind either.
Part of the explanation is where Nuno Espirito Santo has actually played him. Pablo arrived as a traditional out-and-out striker, but he's barely featured in that role for West Ham. Instead, he's mostly operated just off Taty Castellanos in a deeper, more creative role meant for a number 10, and has even been used as a left-sided winger on occasion. Neither suits him. Pablo's game is built on strength, hold-up play and a non-stop motor rather than the pace or close control those positions demand, and it shows: his shot volume has almost been cut in half since leaving Portugal, from 1.8 attempts a game to 0.9 in the Premier League.
The logic behind the reshuffle isn't hard to follow. West Ham haven't had a genuine number 10 since Lucas Paqueta left in the same window Pablo arrived, and Pablo's work rate and pressing offered Nuno a stopgap option behind Castellanos. Pundit Tony Gale has pinpointed the resulting technical strain, saying simply: "Pablo has just got to play on the half-turn more." It's a fair diagnosis of a striker being asked to do a creator's job.
Publicly, there's been little from Pablo himself beyond the usual, but the club have consistently talked up his effort. Nuno described him as "improving day by day" during a spell out with a calf injury in February, and pieces defending Pablo have pointed to the energy and intensity he brings alongside Castellanos even when the end product isn't there. His old coach at Gil Vicente, Peixoto, always insisted the attributes were there to succeed at a higher level, saying before the move that "Pablo has become a very complete player."
Whether that completeness translates into goals may depend on whether Pablo ever gets asked to do the job he was actually bought for. His Gil Vicente numbers suggest a genuine poacher's instinct when played centrally and given service into the box, the kind of finisher who scored nine goals in his final ten Primeira Liga matches before the move. Nuno, now rebuilding in the Championship after relegation, needs to find a way to work Pablo back into a position he is more familiar with. Continuing to work him from a disadvantage will never actually lead to what actually works for him.
Super-agent Jorge Mendes did his clients no favors when he literally orchestrated a deal that appears to be a straight fleecing for Gil Vicente. He added a player to Nuno’s squad who is playing out of position, and it put the weight of 20 million squarely on the shoulders of a young striker still trying to find his footing.
In January, Nuno pushed the West Ham board for reinforcements. Karren Brady, who has since resigned, made the deal to help her manager survive relegation. While Pablo has certainly been an incredible teammate, his production does not warrant the fee that was paid. And fair play to Gil Vicente, who took someone like Brady to negotiating school. She put West Ham into a bad deal, and ultimately she paid the price. But there were two other people culpable for this transfer. Nuno has to answer for the high price. He keeps forcing a square peg into a round hole. For his sake and the player's, it's time to give him a real go at his best position or admit his agent completely took advantage of the situation.
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