So, West Ham have signed Marouane Chamakh on loan for six months from Arsenal and in all honesty it hasn’t been greatly received by the majority of West Ham fans. I want to talk about why I feel this is a good move for Marouane himself but also for West Ham.
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I would describe Marouane Chamakh as a Sam Allardyce style target man who has a tall stature and an excellent heading ability. Before his time at Arsenal he played at Bordeaux where he spent nine years with whom he won the French Ligue 1 in the 2008-09 season, the Coupe De La Ligue in 07,08 and the Trophee des champions in 08,09. Marouane also became the first player to score in six consecutive games in the UEFA Champions League. He played 301 games and scored 76 goals for Bordeaux before joining Arsenal in 2010 on a free transfer and I think it’s fair to say he joined Arsenal as a successful young player.
Marouane had a successful start to his Arsenal career where he scored 11 goals in 21 appearances but struggled for game time when Robin van Persie returned from injury. He never managed to recover the form he started his Arsenal career with.
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As with any signing it has the chance to go wrong and I feel this is the case for what happened with Marouane at Arsenal. Maybe this move for him to West Ham will be a positive move and he can get back to what he does best and that’s play football and score goals. With plenty of game time at his finger tips he should be match fit and ready to go in no time. With Matt Jarvis and Joe Cole proving crosses and with Marouane’s heading abilities this should be a perfect combination.
The thing I hope most is that Marouane wants to prove people wrong, that he isn’t a flop and he is a top player. I hope his decline in goal ratio was due to the fact that he found game time hard to come by and a world class player in front of him at Arsenal the problem. I personally didn’t feel that Marouane suited Arsenal’s style of play. Arsenal like to play fast, slick football and he is a player that likes a tussle and likes to rough it up in the box and win balls in the air, that’s not Arsenal’s game.
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I agree Marouane Chamakh was not my first choice forward I wanted to join West Ham, I would have liked to have seen Charlie Austin or Darren Bent, but we could have done a lot worse. I for one will hold judgement on him until he has a fair run of games at West Ham and I hope that other West Ham fans are the same. Let’s get behind him and show him the support he needs to get his confidence back. I can remember when the signing of Paolo Di Canio split fans and look how that turned out so there is no reason this can’t end the same way.
Remember he has been successful so he has the ability to be successful again.
Carl Bateson
Follow me on Twitter @BatesonCarl for comments and feedback and general West Ham and football banter.
A good deal for us, if he plays well we have the option to sign him, if he fails we can send him back.
Only if he is a hell of a lot better than he has been of late for Arsenal. I am not keen but he hopefully will prove me wrong
The fact that he was seen as a star centre forward after scoring a goal every four games in the French league tells you a lot about modern football.
He’s basically failed his whole career and yet has spent years earning big money from top division teams.
I would much rather see Rob Hall or Elliot Lee given a chance personally, or for us to have held on to Baldock and Maynard.
I hope he proves me wrong, but there is no evidence to suggest that he will.
tonka neither baldock or maynard were prem material thats why both were flogged but as a swindon bloke i know a lot about charlie austin and i tell you this best box predtor ive seen in years if weve got 10M plus we should buy him
But yet this guy has scored the sam amount of goals this season as Carlton Cole?
If Chamakh wasn`t that good,Arsenal would`nt have brought him to the premier league,they`re not stupid he`s class.
I’m sick and tired of west ham fans saying we should have kept Baldock and Maynard. Both are championship players and are not good enough for the prem. what I like about Big Sam is he is not afraid to make a decision. If we kept them there value would have simply decreased and we would have struggled to get the fee we paid for them back.
What have they done since they left, Baldock started hot with a few taps, but has since dried up and doesn’t even start every week now. Maynard has been unlucky with injury but he has a history there so I think Big Sam had the foresight to sell him before it happened.
On to Chamakh, he was hot property a few years back in the French league and regularly scored in the champs league. His goal scoring ratio was about 1 in 3.5 which is ok. However, he was known for his aerial ability and pace. I think he’s a good signing, low risk with big upside! If he gets his confidence and old form we’ll have a real asset. You don’t become a bad striker overnight. Lets hope he has a chip on his shoulder to prove arsene wrong! I also hope he sorts his Barnett out as well, greasey g1t!
His scoring rate, in the most prolific period of his career, playing in a league below the standard of the EPL, is one goal in every 3.9 games. Is that all it takes to be a top centre forward these days?
Do you listen to yourself when you speak? You’re having a pop at Chamakh for scoring once every 4 games, in case you hadn’t noticed Carlton scores 10 a season, as there are 40 games per season that would work out at one every…4 games!! Get a grip you tool
Don’t misunderstand me, I doubt Maynard and Baldock are good enough to be frontline Premier League strikers as well. But what we are talking about is signing a fourth string striker as cover for Carroll, Cole and Maiga. I think they could do that job as well and a lot cheaper than Chamakh.
My point is that Chamakh has failed over and over again and yet we seem to be willing to pay him a big wage just because he previously got signed by Wenger.
Wenger has signed some great players over the years, but any Arsenal fan will tell you he’s signed just as many duds. Where is the evidence that Chamakh’s the former not the latter?
I think BS has a history of picking up players especially strikers who have lost their way. Just look at Kevin Davis he looked like a carthorse until Sam incorporated him into a system that played to his strengths. He got Ococha at 28 from a team in the lower part of the old french league 1. I dont think he has got Chamakh to be forth choice I think he is looking for firepower. I did read today that a Brazilian was having a medical at U.P name of Wellington another forward. He sounds impressive on wikapedia.