West Ham’s £7 million signing of Michail Antonio in September 2015 looks a great piece of business 18 months later.

The former Nottingham Forest player has established himself as one of the Hammers’ star players this season with his strength, pace and versatility, whilst he’s chipped in with eight goals.

His performances for Slaven Bilic’s side have also earned him a call-up for England - although he is yet to make an appearance.

But Antonio is 27 this month and only played in the top flight for the first time last season. In truth, his career before moving to West Ham was fairly underwhelming.

So much so that one club wouldn’t even pay £7 for him. No, seriously.

In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Antonio told the story of when he was 16 playing for non-league side Tooting & Mitcham and, despite their interest, League One side AFC Wimbledon weren’t willing to pay the nominal registration fee for him.

Antonio on AFC Wimbledon

"I was playing for the juniors. I had to trial for the youth team at Tooting & Mitcham. The youth team manager didn't even want to look at the junior team, so I had to go trial for them. Managed to get in," he explained.

"Got into the reserve team my first year. The reserve team manager was telling the first team manager about me. He was like 'nah, he's a kid. He's not going to be strong, fast, or not even good enough.'

"So I had to trial for the first team. Got into the first team. Started playing, but then they wanted me to sign a contract. I didn't want to sign a contract, so they've kicked me out of the team.

"Then I went to AFC Wimbledon. They didn't want to pay for my registration fee. £7."

Nine years later and Antonio was involved in a transfer one million times that amount. Crazy.

But even after leaving Tooting & Mitcham, Antonio’s career didn’t really take off.

He signed for Reading but only made 33 appearances in four seasons, whilst having loan spells at Cheltenham, Southampton, Colchester and Sheffield Wednesday.

Wednesday then signed him before he moved to Nottingham Forest for a further two campaigns. Only then did he finally get his break of playing in the top flight, an opportunity he’s grabbed with both hands.

West Ham certainly don’t regret paying £7 million for him but we wonder if AFC Wimbledon regret not paying £7 for him.

We reckon they do.