West Ham rarely hit the target when they buy a striker. Names such as Mido, Ilan, Benni McCarthy, Jonathan Calleri and Simone Zaza will send a shiver down the spine of Hammers supporters, who must despair at the same old mistakes being made over and over again.
This has been a constant theme since David Sullivan and the late David Gold bought the club in January 2010. The 15-year anniversary arrives on Sunday and the numbers have not improved in the eight years since I first wrote about West Ham’s striking failure, detailing how the 32 forwards bought during Sullivan and Gold’s ownership at that point had mustered 128 goals in 643 appearances.
Of course, as Arsenal are finding, landing the right goalscorer is a difficult and costly business. Why, though, do West Ham keep misfiring? The number of strikers signed is up to 40, with a return of 192 goals in 970 appearances. Niclas Füllkrug, the latest in a long line of underwhelming buys, has just been ruled out for three months with a hamstring injury sustained during last Friday’s defeat away to Aston Villa in the FA Cup. For Graham Potter, whose only fit striker for Tuesday evening’s home game against Fulham is Danny Ings (a panic buy at £12m in January 2023, five goals in 64 appearances since then), getting to grips with the foot-shooting nature of the West Ham way is one of his most pressing priorities.
It will not be easy for West Ham to adjust against Fulham given that Potter goes into his second match in charge with Ings, Lucas Paquetá, Luis Guilherme, Carlos Soler and Mohammed Kudus as his only attacking options, assuming that the Dutch winger Crysencio Summerville is sidelined with a minor hamstring injury. This is a challenging moment for the head coach. Reinforcements are needed this month and West Ham are desperately hunting for a striker. Links with Marcus Rashford will not go away, but their chances of signing the Manchester United forward on loan are next to nothing.
Other targets are being considered. Evan Ferguson is a possibility on loan but is injured and it is unclear whether Brighton will let him go. There have been talks over a loan move for Nottingham’s Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi. Desperation abounds. The problem for West Ham is they are always playing catch-up. Misfortune is part of the situation – the hole caused by Füllkrug limping off against Villa would not be as big were Michail Antonio or Jarrod Bowen available – but overall West Ham are in an unforgiving loop of expensive strikers trying and failing to impress before leaving at a loss.
It is why, for instance, West Ham paid £16m for Javier Hernández, who did not have the physicality to lead the line for a mid-table Premier League side, and let the Mexican go after 17 goals in 63 appearances two years later.
Does the face fit? “It’s tempting to think there’s some guy out there that’s going to solve all your problems,” Potter said on Monday. “My experience is it’s rarely as easy as that. What you don’t want to do is just go: ‘OK, we’ve signed a centre forward’ – and then you look under the button and you think: ‘Well he’s not quite at the level, or doesn’t fit the playing style, or isn’t quite the right character.’ All of a sudden you think you’ve solved the problem, but you’ve just created another one.”
It should not be about individuals. Too often, though, West Ham seem to buy a striker with little regard for whether they are the right style of player. There was the decision to spend a club record £45m on Sébastien Haller, who left after 18 months after scoring 14 goals in 54 appearances. Eighteen months later came the £30.5m Gianluca Scamacca: a talent who seemed unsuited to English football, unable to adjust to life away from Italy and unwilling to last more than a season after eight goals in 27 appearances. The 31-year-old Füllkrug, who cost £27.5m last summer, has two goals in 11 appearances and is probably out for the season.
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Then there are the punts: £8m on Albian Ajeti (no goals in 12 appearances), £8m on Jordan Hugill (never to be seen again after three substitute appearances), £4m on Lucas Pérez (why?). No wonder West Ham have been so reliant on Antonio for such a long time. Nobody has been able to replicate his physicality and running power. Ings lacks presence, is on big wages and was mainly signed to cover for Scamacca’s struggles. West Ham miss Antonio, who is out for the season after breaking a leg in a car crash last month.
The irony, of course, is that Antonio has been converted into a striker since signing in 2015 and is the club’s record goalscorer in the Premier League era. It is similar with another success story, Marko Arnautovic, who was turned into an effective No 9 by David Moyes, while Bowen’s goals and assists from the right wing have been crucial in recent seasons.
At Brighton Potter, who is toying with the idea of Paquetá as a false 9, built a team that shared the goals around. West Ham have had near-misses in the past – they tried and failed to sign Darwin Núñez and Alexander Isak – but perhaps it is not all about a prolific striker. They do not come cheap and West Ham have already wasted a lot of money attempting to satisfy an obsession that continues to be their undoing.
Source: theguardian.com
