La Liga expert Terry Gibson has often provided rundowns to Premier League clubs chasing the brightest talents in Spanish football so, when West Ham United targeted Pablo Fornals, he may have expected a phone call was coming.
The Pablo Fornals who left Villarreal for West Ham United in a £24 million deal during the summer of 2019, meanwhile, was certainly a very different Pablo Fornals to the one who returned to La Liga with Real Betis five years later.
Even now, over the last 12 months or so, the six-time Spain international has continued to twist and contort into something more and more unexpected. Entering the chrysalis as what Gibson calls a ‘classic Spanish attacking midfield player’ and emerging a burly, box-to-box dynamo forged by the Irons and Hammers of East London.
Pablo Fornals rescued Manuel Pellegrini – another, less successful former West Ham employee – as Real Betis came from 2-0 down to secure a point at Levante earlier this month.
Lining up in a much deeper role than casual Fornals viewers are accustomed to, he not only pulled the strings throughout, he also popped up late on to guide an equaliser into the corner.
That, though, was only a hint of things to come. As he found the net for a second La Liga match in succession – Real Betis beat Real Sociedad 3-1 on Friday night – Fornals’ final form was revealed.
And, having watched the Europa Conference League winner from all the way back in his baby-faced Malaga days, even Gibson did not see this transformation coming.
Terry Gibson recalls when Pablo Fornals stunned the West Ham United bosses
In that Real Sociedad triumph, Fornals not only topped the charts for ‘key passes’ but interceptions too.
At a time when West Ham are crying out for a midfielder of such broad flexibility – Wayne Rooney feels they must find a new Declan Rice or Mark Noble, even if that is much easier said than done – the 2025 version of Pablo Fornals could hardly look more like the solution to Graham Potter’s greatest problem.
“Pablo Fornals was the best player on the pitch [against Real Sociedad]. He’s an interesting player, Fornals,” Gibson muses on the El Tel and Jon’s La Liga Weekly podcast. “I have [always] liked him, wherever he has been and whoever he has played for.
“But he has become a different player to what I thought he was initially going to be. And that came from West Ham.
“At Villarreal and Malaga, I thought; ‘Technically, really good. That’s his strength. A classic Spanish attacking midfield player’. Then he went to West Ham, and I spoke to a few people who worked at West Ham. They told me; ‘His work-rate is off the scale’.
“That is what took them by surprise. They knew about his other attributes but they didn’t know how hard he worked, what a good attitude he had. He’s just continued that now, to the extent that he’s now an orthodox central midfield player.”
Fornals ‘fabulous’ as Real Betis star develops into one of La Liga’s best midfielders
It is exactly that fighting spirit which endeared the fans to Fornals. How Graham Potter must rue the decision David Moyes made back in January 2024.
“A year ago, you’re looking at him thinking; ‘A midfield with Pablo Fornals in it? I don’t know about that. He’s a silky, creative, attacking, skilful player’,” adds Gibson, who represented Tottenham, Man United and Wimbledon among others in his own playing days.
“But now, he is a proper, box-to-box, all-round attacking midfield player who defends and gets forward. In [the Real Sociedad game], he made a goal, he scored a goal.
“He was fabulous.”
Fornals started on the bench as Pellegrini shuffled his pack for the 2-2 UEFA Europa League draw with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.
