I’ll admit it — the first time I saw Soungoutou Magassa in the flesh, I was far from impressed.

It came during a defeat to Crystal Palace, which turned out to be Graham Potter’s final game in charge of West Ham United.

I was fortunate enough to have a front-row seat at the London Stadium, thanks to Hammers Chat’s sponsors, ETC Sports — giving me a bird’s-eye view of everything. Unfortunately, that also included Potter’s touchline instructions.

It was later in the game, when Magassa was introduced as a substitute, that I really focused on West Ham’s £20m summer signing from AS Monaco — and honestly, I wasn’t convinced.

The 21-year-old looked clumsy, short of coordination and nowhere near the fitness levels required for a Premier League that seems more intense than ever. The pace of the game appeared to be a complete culture shock, and I assumed it would take him a long time to adapt to English football.

West Ham have only scratched the surface with Magassa

Midfielder Still Needs to Impress Nuno

But things improved far quicker than I expected.

It didn’t take long before Magassa began to show real quality under Nuno...