West Ham United are a team that have been lacking a striker capable of scoring goals since the fantastic Dean Ashton. As the hunt goes on to find a striker capable of scoring goals most games, we have two possibilities for next seasons starting striker, Wilfried Bony who is currently one of the highest scorer in Europe (27 I believe). Although, most people do not see past the 27 goals, and do not realise that he is playing in a very bad league, Vitesse are currently third in the eredivisie. Andy Carroll is another possibility. Andy Carroll is yet to show West Ham what he is capable of. Andy is currently on good form after scoring two superb goals against West Bromwich Albion. But you can’t buy a player based on three games where he has been outstanding. I believe that both of these strikers would be very risky for the price we are being asked to pay, which is around 10 million for both players, but Bony is also asking for a very high wage. Andy Carroll has been in poor form since moving to Liverpool in 2011, and only scoring 6 goals in 44 appearances; whereas Wilfried Bony, who has scored 27 goals in 26 appearances, and an equal amount of goals home and away. He looks like the ideal purchase. Personally I believe that although Bony has shown he is capable of scoring goals in his league, it reminds me of the on-going Neymar fiasco. Both players look outstanding in their own leagues, but the premier league is on a completely different level to the eredivisie, with teams like Manchester united, Chelsea and Manchester City.
Although it seems Allardyce and co are only looking for strikers, we are also on the lookout for a replacement right back. Our current right back is Joey O’Brien, who has shown how incapable he is in the premier league. The same could be said for our right midfielder, Vaz Te, and possibly a left midfielder if Jarvis hasn’t upped his game. At this current moment in time we have been linked with Eljero Elia as a left midfielder. It seems that West Ham are looking for underachieving players, or players that are only capable in lower leagues. Elia has currently played 1701 minutes (18.9 matches) and only had 3 assists. Jarvis has currently played 25 games, 4 as sub, and had no assists, but one goal. Jarvis’ only assist was against Chelsea, although the goal was disallowed. So although he has had more assists in fewer games, 3 assists in 18.9 games is still extremely poor.
I believe Allardyce needs to look at players that have shown that they are capable of scoring, or assisting in the higher leagues such as the Premier League, Liga BBVA etc. before we sign them.
I would like to see Carroll return, but I would not pay more than 7 million for him, but Liverpool are asking for an extra 10 million, so even that would be a big risk, as he hasn’t really showed any great form except from the past few games. And with Newcastle also looking for a replacement for Demba Ba, and looking at Andy Carroll, it seems unlikely that he would return to west ham once the seasons draws to an end.