West Ham United had a relatively quiet January transfer window despite their poor league performances, with David Moyes opting to trust the talent he already had within the squad.

Despite reports linking many of his players with exits from the London Stadium, it was only Craig Dawson of note who left, which admittedly was a move six months in the making.

The fact that the main addition they did make was to add Danny Ings to the fold is a searing indication of just how poor the Hammers have been up front, as despite shows of faith across the board the striker role had become untenable.

As such, Michail Antonio was one man heavily linked with a move away. Everton were the party seemingly most interested, given their desperation, but in the end, nobody could make the move happen and the all-time Premier League goalscorer for the Irons remained.

Since then, however, he has done little to prove why retaining him was the smart move.

The 32-year-old has continued his struggles, which culminated in a horrid display against Newcastle United despite the good result.

It marked an 11th consecutive league game without finding the back of the net, but what makes it even worse is that he is seemingly not putting in the usual work that made him so revered. He was never the most prolific, but he would run the channels relentlessly and bully centre-backs, at the very least offering room for his attacking counterparts to feed off the chaos he created.

But, at St James’ Park, Magpies boss Eddie Howe even praised the defenders for the ease with which they “contained him pretty well”.

Antonio was handed a 6.2 rating for the match, the lowest of anyone on the field, which was underpinned by his 47% pass accuracy, zero shots on target and one aerial duel won out of eight, via Sofascore.

At the turn of the year former West Ham marksman Frank McAvennie slammed the striker for “not putting the effort in”, and despite the scare of his potential exit, nothing seems to have changed.

Perhaps Moyes should have cashed in on the £85k-per-week dud, who must surely fall behind Ings and Gianluca Scamacca in the pecking order after his continued abysmal form.