Ever since his £17.5 Million transfer from Borussia Dortmund, striker Andriy Yarmolenko has rather flattered to deceive whilst picking up over £110,000 pw. 
The 30 year old Ukranian signed a four year deal which expires in 2022, he made his debut on the 12th of August in the 4–0 defeat to Liverpool. He made a couple of lively contributions to the team, including a lovely brace in the 3-1 away victory over Everton, unfortunately he then succumbed to the Hammers injury curse by suffering an Achilles tear on the 20th of October 2018 in the 1–0 loss to Tottenham which ruled him out for the remainder of the season.
In all Yarmolenko has only managed 25 first team appearances, scoring 5 goals in the process, not a very handsome return for the fiscal outlay involved, the wisdom of signing an injury prone player yet again not sinking in! Had it not been for Jack Wilshere's dreadfully injury hit time a the club Yarmolenko's 'plight' might have sounded the alarm bells ringing earlier.
The big Leningrad born striker/winger has never returned to full match fitness because both David Moyes and his predecessor Manuel Pellegrini were both reluctant to 'risk' such a fine player until fully fit! Had it not dawned on them that to get match fit you have to play games? So with the club fighting a relegation battle that will go down to the wire, why not risk playing Yarmolenko in more than just a cameo role?
Despite playing with all his heart, Michail Antonio is not a striker, and in the continued absence of record signing Sebastian Haller, someone needs to step up to the plate and score goals. On his day Andriy Yarmolenko can be an elegant player with a lethal finish, but there is no point in 'saving him for later', because later is here, and now, and rather ugly!
There are rumours that 'Yarmo' is not being played in order to ensure he is fit enough to sell, if that is the case then that would be a mistake, mind you similar rumours abound regarding Seb Haller as well. What is the point of all this saving players for later? Sort things out now and THEN start thinking about what next, instead of thinking about what next and doing nothing.
The relegation precipice is there for all to see, unless radical action is taken it will be West Ham United going over the edge, risk Yarmo against Chelsea? You betcha...Ed
Comments
Too right,its shit or bust
Too right,its shit or bust,anyone with a grain of fitness needs to be brought forward to stand up and be counted,and show their worth,though i must admit,as i have put in previous posts,we deserve to go down,and im of the opinion so be it,as i want to watch a decent competitive game with players that have got some heart,not this crap.
Spot on Essex
We deserve to go down & just lucky at the moment that the other sides around us are shit too
relegation a close call
Chelsea will probably be too much for us on Wednesday and away to Newcastle on Sunday probably the first real chance of a point. Cant see much more than 10 points coming our way and the last game against Aston Villa will seal our fate where we would have to win to stay up. Thankfully we are playing the teams around us in the coming weeks so just maybe we can avoid the drop. 37 points should do it imo but it will be vary close.
Cant believe how bad we are at the moment but just hope Moyes drops the long ball and crowding the goal keeper from corners (Nolan tactic that did not work all that well when he played for us).