Somehow, Maxwel Cornet is still a West Ham player.

It’s quite remarkable to think about the Ivorian’s last four years of football. Since moving to East London in 2022, Cornet has become a European champion, graduated with a master’s degree from Lyon Business School and participated in three seasons of Premier League football.

And yet, in those four years, he has made only 37 appearances in all competitions for the Irons – even that seems like a lot. The now 29-year-old has scored only once for West Ham in a competitive match, finding the net with a half-volley in a 2-2 draw against Sheffield United in 2024.

In the same game, Danny Ings played a blinder in the No. 10 role and, typically, the Irons conceded the latest goal in Premier League history when Ollie McBurnie equalised for the Blades in the 103rd minute.

After loan spells at Southampton and Genoa over the last eighteen months, during which Cornet made a grand total of 19 appearances, he is now back in Stratford.

I really don’t know what is next for the winger. Nuno Espírito Santo’s side are preparing for a season in the Championship, but surely Cornet can’t be in the gaffer’s plans.

Interestingly, he scored in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Colchester yesterday. Other forgotten man Niclas Füllkrug also got on the scoresheet, as did striker Pablo, who found the net for the first time ever in claret and blue. Maybe we should play all our games behind closed doors next season.

What’s frustrating is that Cornet has the potential to be a very effective winger in the second tier. It seems like every season, a portion of the fanbase boldly predicts that this will be the year he takes his chance. But he never does.

We have seen glimpses of his quality, especially in his first season, where he (again, somehow) picked up five assists in the Conference League. But after a long-term injury in 2022, he has been burdened by spells on the sidelines, even when on loan at Southampton and Genoa – why would this season be any different?

Cornet’s contract expires next summer, so now is the time to cash in on him. I truly believe he won’t play another competitive game for us.

It’s a shame, really. You have to wonder what would’ve happened had his equaliser against Chelsea in 2022 stood. It would have done a lot for his confidence, and West Ham’s at the time. Perhaps he would have become a mainstay in the side. Perhaps a run of games would have given him the sharpness to avoid that terrible calf injury that ended his West Ham career before it even really began.

We’ll never know. But if this is goodbye, at least he has given us one last goal to go out on – in a behind-closed-doors friendly. Against Colchester. To add to his tally of one other goal in four years. My word.