PEA FOR VICTORY

United favourite Hernandez back at Old Trafford..but promises there will be no celebration if he’s a Hammers hit

JAVIER HERNANDEZ doesn’t know whether he can bring himself to celebrate if he decorates his West Ham debut with a goal at Old Trafford.

Fate has handed former Manchester United darling Chicharito a sentimental return to his old kingdom on Sunday, when the Mexican superstar begins his second coming in English football.

‘Little Pea’ won the title twice in three years under Sir Alex Ferguson at United – and they have been nowhere near another since Hernandez was farmed out on loan to Real Madrid and then sold to Bayer Leverkusen by Louis van Gaal.

Current United boss Jose Mourinho says Chicharito, 29, should never have been sold and he would have scored 20 goals last season while the Special One’s other strikers – Zlatan Ibrahimovic excepted – struggled to hit a barn door with a muck-spreader.

But Chicharito, who will wear the No.17 shirt for the Hammers after his £16million move from Germany, is unsure whether he would let it all hang out if he tucked away a chance for old times’ sake.

He said: “I can’t imagine the emotions I would have if I have the luck to score a goal.

“I’m going back to my old club, my old home, my old fans, so probably I can’t celebrate. And I will not go into this game thinking about celebration. “I’m very happy to be back in England, very glad to start a new chapter of my career in the Premier League, and the best way to start will be to try and deliver a good performance for West Ham. Going back there, it’s going to be something happy – one very important and lucky moment. “It’s seven years since I first came to England. I was living the dream because I made a very big step which was not common to move from Latin America, but it gave me more motivation and hunger about what I wanted to achieve and prove to myself.” Hernandez is looking forward to bumping into old friends – notably Fergie, the man who signed him, and goalkeeper David De Gea, the man he must beat, on Sunday – but he insists he “wasn’t surprised” by United’s decline after the old growler retired in 2013. The Red Devils went from champions to seventh in the space of 12 months, and Moyes did not even last a season as the Chosen One to succeed Ferguson. But Chicharito, who scored 59 goals in 157 appearances for the club, shrugged: “We all knew there was going to be a transition. You cannot have a manager for 26 years – the best manager in history, achieving everything – and nothing changes when he goes. “It’s normal. Nobody

expected, when we played for David Moyes, that we wouldn’t be in European football.

“When Sir Alex retired, we knew it was going to be very difficult. He was unique in the history of football.

“What was different when he left? Everything.

“I don’t say this in a good or bad way, it was just change.

“But nobody wants to be out of European competitions or not to fight for the title.

“I was shocked when Sir Alex left, of course. I didn’t see it coming – nobody did.

“And I was upset because he was the manager who brought me here, opened the door to Europe and gave me a lot of opportunities to live this dream.

“How will he feel if I score against United? I don’t know, you will have to ask him! I’m a Hammer now.

“I’m a West Ham player, and I want to do even better than I did in Manchester if I can. The main goal for everyone here is the European spots.”