Chicharito’s future in doubt

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Javier Hernandez — also known as Chicharito — has had a remarkable debut season in 2010.

It’s often said that when South Americans make that big move from their ‘hometown clubs’ to the English Premier League, they need one or two seasons just to settle in. The pace and the style of English football can be ‘too alien’ for those skilful youngsters.

But then, there are a few exceptions like Chelsea’s Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Junior, or simply Oscar, and Manchester United’s Javier Hernandez alias Chicharito.
Of the two, it was the Mexican striker Chicharito who jumped on the EPL bandwagon first. In 2010, when United bought the then 21-year-old from Chivas de Guadalajara, few could understand Sir Alex Ferguson.
Old Trafford faithful would surely have preferred a more accomplished name than a relatively untested Mexican to partner Wayne Rooney up front. If at all Ferguson wanted to invest in the future, why not an 18-year-old Brazilian or a prodigious Argentine?
But a few months down the line, Chicharito showed just why Ferguson decided to bring a Mexican to Old Trafford for the first time — he was a true poacher. As world football changes to a more possession-based game, strikers with true poaching skills — players who could slip under the radar and dart through the defenders to be at the right place at the right time for that incoming cross — are a rarity. Most modern strikers are either a mix of midfielder and forward or are winger-turned-strikers.
Chicharito — who belonged to the second ‘endangered category’ — showed poachers won’t go extinct. In his first season at Old Trafford, Chicharito — just like he arrived at the club — slipped under everyone’s radar to score 20 goals in all competitions.
As the finish line of 2012-13 season approaches, it seems Chicharito’s greatest asset has become his Achilles’ Heel. Javier Hernandez is not visible even on Ferguson’s radar. With Robin van Persie exerting his right to lead the charge, even Rooney had to transform into an attacking midfielder or, using an Italian term, the Englishman has now adopted the trequartista role. If a change was in demand, Ferguson has more often preferred Danny Welbeck than Hernandez.
So as we approach another transfer window, the question that lingers is, what next for Chicharito? His future may well decide the fate of true poachers in world football.