West Ham signed Wellington Paulista in January with not many people knowing too much about him and it’s now heading towards mid-March and we still don’t know much about him.
The player has been in and around the development squad since he arrived and has scored a few goals for them but still hasn’t been around the first team squad to be given a game. Even when the squad flew out to Dubai a few weeks ago for a training camp he decided to stay in England to play for the development squad.
This makes me think what was the point in signing him if we aren’t going to play him? When he signed I was quite excited even though I didn’t know anything about him. But after doing some research on him I realised that he had a good goal scoring record and would bring something different to the team.
I have said for ages now that we need a striker that is different to all our others. He is a small striker and is a natural goal scorer which I think all West Ham fans will agree we haven’t had at all this season. However Allardyce doesn’t feel the need to include him in any of the first team games. It was rumoured when he arrived he wasn’t match fit but he must surely be fit enough now to just be on the bench.
Maybe I am a bit biased because all season I have been saying how it was wrong for the club to sell both Baldock and Maynard and not bring in a similar striker to replace them. I think it is always good to have a striker like them in team because they can bring something totally different and can be a big impact from the bench. It also gives the manager more options when changing tactics if we are losing or drawing the game.
Although saying this I haven’t seen much evidence of Allardyce wanting to change tactics during a game and go 442 for example. So this brings me back to the question, what was the point in signing him if we aren’t going to use him?