Michail Antonio had agreed to leave West Ham United for another club in January it seems.

West Ham forward Michail Antonio was apparently the subject of a bid from Gremio, and he was happy to leave the London Stadium.

This is all according to Brazilian reporter Diego Torbes, via Gremio TimeLine, who claims that the only reason the 33-year-old isn’t now a Gremio player is because he failed a medical with the South American side.

If true, it’s a huge worry that the Hammers boss David Moyes would have allowed the Jamaica international to leave the club, considering how stretched we already are in the attacking department.

Antonio is currently out injured, but he has returned to training, and boy do we need him back. Moyes allowed Said Benrahma and Pablo Fornals to leave on deadline day, but it seems like we could have been even more thin on ground in the forward department had Antonio been fit as a fiddle…

Michail Antonio has just come incredibly close to leaving West Ham

The report claiming that the Jamaican failed a medical ahead of a move to Gremio suggests that the Hammers agreed to sell him and he was keen to join the South American side.

The Brazilian transfer window doesn’t close until March 7th, so Antonio could still leave West Ham to join Gremio despite the fact that our window slammed shut on February 1st.

Listen, he’s been so poor for the Hammers this season, and the sooner that Moyes replaces him the better.

However, we quite simply couldn’t afford to lose him this month, given how few options Moyes already has at his disposal up front.

Michail Antonio earns around £100k-a-week at the London Stadium, and I have no doubts that he’ll be moved on in the summer as Moyes looks to bring a proper striker to West Ham.

However, allowing him to leave right now would have been utter madness. It seems like that’s exactly what Moyes was prepared to do though, and that’s hugely concerning in my view.

He’s still incredibly important to the way that we play. Thilo Kehrer recently suggested that Antonio ‘works like crazy’ (Football London), and we’ve really missed him at times over the past few months. Selling him right now would have been a ludicrous decision from the club.