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Are West Ham Putting All Their Eggs In One Basket (case)?

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Tue, 31/01/2017 - 11:15

West Ham United have finally pulled out of signing Scott Hogan from Brentford, the asking price of £15 Million and a late bid from Aston Villa having put the mockers on the deal. It was a lot of money to ask for an injury prone and untried at the top level striker, West Ham are well experience in that area after all! Which inevitably brings up the question of why on transfer day the club are not looking to bolster their striking options? Well having signed a ridiculous amount of strikers (76 at last count) since taking over the club of which very few ever did anything, co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold are obviously wary of 'panic' buying. There is nothing wrong in their stance, however it is a little risky, Andy Carroll has been in imperious form and in today's inflated transfer market looks worth every bit of the £20 Million West Ham paid for him, but Big Andy is always just one mistimed tackle or one attempt too far from a lengthy injury lay off and who would step up to the plate in that instance? Jonathen Callerri? Mmm not so sure. Ashley Fletcher? Very promising but Slaven Billic doesn't seem to convinced, that leaves Diafra Sakho as the only other striker, yet again fitness is a huge issue, having had his back destroyed while on International duty he has the dubious distinction of having played even fewer games than Andy Carroll! If the big geordie can stay fit, and if 'Daffy' can start playing more than the odd cameo game and if Fletcher can be fully integrated in to the first team then the board will have played a blinder, however it represents a hell of a gamble. In a way the owners are between a rock and a hard place, failing a catastrophic loss of form West Ham's position at the top table is safe, so planning for next season is all important but they have to maintain a balance to keep fans on board. Perhaps that is why there has been a leaked 'flurry of interest' in taking Daniel Sturridge on loan from Liverpool until the end of the season?
Hearts want Big Andy to lead the line and keep banging the goals in, heads say he is too fragile! - Ed
PS: We heard a whisper that Sakho and Snake Man had a bit of a falling out at the beginning of the season...

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andycarrollstyle's picture

andycarrollstyle

Tue, 31/01/2017 - 17:28

Ayew is not good enough as a striker. I feel now we should of put our efforts into buying Defoe over Hogan - if we managed to prize him away from Sunderland, the reported figure was £7m, which all things considered probably would have risen by an extra £2-3m... but with proven goal scoring ability in the Prem, even if we just had him for the remainder of the season I think it would of been a much more effective acquisition for what he would add to the squad and despite getting him at the twilight of his career I think we would see an instant return from our initial outlay paid than the risky unproven and injury prone £15m Hogan.

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Red Neck Iron

Tue, 31/01/2017 - 18:55

Fletcher is way off prem standard atm, big question marks over calleri would need some large strides ala tevez to come through. It would be desperate to consider them as options at this stage. If anyone needed a loan its fletcher. Which means we have our normal 2 injury prones with board likely to make same mistakes for yet another season or we can have 2 players playing out of their positions in ayew or Antonio. We are either relying on injury prone players to stay fit or back ups trying to adjust to a different position. In an ideal world sakho may be 100 per cent now he has had the op and big mick and Andre might revel playing further forward. It's possible but very risky. One day they will play this card once too often and get their just deserts.

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92 users have voted.

Just read Hogan's injury list and it was horrendous up until the end of last season. He has been injury free for a few months though which tells me he is an accident waiting to happen and knowing our luck he would turn out to be like Andy Carroll or Sakho or Ayew and last about 20 minutes in his first match then be injured for the rest of the season.
West Ham are going nowhere now until next season so save the money and wait until the summer is how the board and manager see it imo

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A D Bonds

I think it stems from David Sullivan always wanting a bargain and taking a gamble.
70 odd strikers (if you believe the reports on newsnow recently) have been signed or loaned since the two Daves took over most of them injury prone, unfit or not up to standard.
The day we actually go out and buy a decent striker or two who are not injury prone will be the time we actually do challenge for a top spot without fading away like we did last season.

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A D Bonds

moore2come's picture

moore2come

Wed, 01/02/2017 - 00:02

Unfortunately it looks like this season is once again panning out to be about consolidation and securing our Premiership place. Not the vision sold for the last 2yrs!
That being said, provided the board, Bilic and the scouting team do their homework and not shout out to all and sundry that we're after this player or that player come the summer, then I pray they realise that securing that striker and another RB are absolute priorities and not offer ridiculously pitiful offers but go out and secure them early. If they dawdle again then i think they'll find more fans on their backs.
So once again it's fingers crossed we can get our current strikers through the season without injury. We're due some serious good luck in that dept and it's time Miss Luck delivered.

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