David Moyes failed to sign a striker for West Ham in the summer. Why we didn’t make a move for Orlando City hitman Daryl Dike is anyone’s guess though.
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He would have been absolutely perfect for the Hammers.
Dike is just 21, so would have been the ideal cover for Michail Antonio. He wouldn’t have expected to play week in week out and has plenty of years left ahead of him where he could have established himself as West Ham’s number one striker.
He was available for just £18 million as well (TEAMtalk)!
The Scot ended up signing attacking midfielder Nikola Vlasic instead of another striker for around £26 million plus add-ons (The Athletic).
So the money was clearly there to spend.
Moyes failed to sign a striker for West Ham but Daryl Dike would have been perfect
Moyes spoke to reporters after the summer transfer window slammed shut and commented on his failure to bring a new striker to the London Stadium, as quoted by Claret and Hugh:
“Trying to find someone who could replace Mic wasn’t easy, but we tried, We found ones which we thought would be suitable but we couldn’t get them for different reasons. Ultimately trying to replace Mic isn’t easy so probably a week or two back I had made up my mind that it would be very difficult to get another No.9 who would be suitable back up so I needed to find other ways of making that work. I wanted to get goals and assists into the team and trying to find centre forwards who were gettable at the right price wasn’t easy. I had to think very carefully about how I was going to spend the money I had and what I could do. If I had used it all up on a No.9 who may have had to sit on the bench while Micky played might not have been the right way.“
Ermmmmm, Daryl Dike? We all know that he was available for the right price.
The eight-capped United States international has been in fine form for Orlando so far this season with 14 goals to his name in 33 games (Transfermarkt).
Antonio Mark II?
Standing at 6ft 2in tall and powerfully built, Dike is literally Michail Antonio 2.0.
The 21-year-old scored a superb winner in the 97th minute for his team on Saturday and the similarities with Antonio are obvious to see:
Dike clearly would have been a useful option for West Ham this season. We could have afforded him and he would have been happy to play a bit-part role for the next year or so. Signing him really should have been a no-brainer for the Hammers.
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It’s worth noting that David Moyes deserves huge amounts of credit for the job he has done at West Ham.
We are delighted to have him as our manager. That doesn’t mean that he is immune from criticism, however.
And failing to sign Daryl Dike in the summer for just £18 million surely must go down as a big error from Moyes. He will surely be regretting that decision himself.
Especially considering how the Scot suggested that it was impossible to sign a striker with similar attributes to Antonio in the summer.
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