Following the 1-0 defeat to Stoke City at the weekend, it highlighted how desperate, Sam Allardyce and his West Ham United squad are, for a decent striker. We’ve all probably got sick of the same lines coming out of the club for the last couple of weeks about the financial fair play rules, and the fact we cannot exceed our £52m wage budget.
West Ham have bought well in the summer, with the likes of Adrian, Razvan Rat, Danny Whitehead, Stewart Downing and club record signing Andy Carroll all joining the club. However, it’s seems the case that West Ham have put all their eggs in one basket regarding Carroll, and spending most of the budget for transfer funds, and wages, on him, only for him to miss the first 3 games of the season, and maybe more, through injury. With Carlton Cole rejecting a new contract, it left Sam Allardyce with Modibo Maiga as his only senior striker. After seeing Maigas performances in the first 3 games of the season, it’s clear he doesn’t have the physical stature, skill or goalscoring prowess to be able to play the lone striker role.
Of course, our hopes were raised when Ricardo Vaz Te said he wanted to leave, and handed in a transfer request – not that I think the club would actually stand in his way of moving! Getting Vaz Te out of the club would free up some wages for a potential signing, however, at the time of writing, he is still at the club, with the teams who have come in for him, either not matching our valuation, or not matching his wages for a loan move.
Deadline day has seen us linked with a number of strikers, strikers who have been linked in the past month as well. The first striker linked was Juventus star, Fabio Quagliarella. It was suggested by Italian sources that he was already in London, and ready for a move to East London. It soon emerged that West Brom were also in for the classy Italian, and since then, it’s gone quiet on that front. Also linked was Marco Boriello from Roma. Again, these were just loose rumours, and have not really materialised. Peter Odemwingie has been linked to a number of clubs throughout the summer window, however, he has recently been unveiled as the latest signing for Malky Mackay at Cardiff City.
The Transfer Window wouldn’t be complete without Jack Sullivan tweeting throughout the day. First of all, Sullivan tweeted this morning to say that his dad was working on a big signing but there was only 30% chance of getting him. Then he tweeted this afternoon to say that the club were working on bringing back a former West Ham star, but this only had a 15% chance of happening. I’m sure you were all wondering the same as me….. how did Jack Sullivan work out the percentages for the possibilities of these transfers!
Of course, the former West Ham star was not Carlton Cole, I believe it was Demba Ba. I think of all the strikers linked with the club, Demba Ba is the one we all want to sign, however, with the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham, Valencia and Napoli all looking at the forward, and Jack Sullivan tweeting that it looks unlikely that West Ham will be signing anyone now, I believe we have now left it too late to do any business. Smokescreens? I don’t think so this time……
COME ON YOU IRONS!!