West Ham have been linked with Peter Odemwingie along with Hull City, Fulham, Sunderland and Crystal Palace. Odemwingie ended his West Brom career last season when he made every football fan cringe, when it was announced that Peter had turned up at QPR’s training ground during January deadline day with no agreement made between the two clubs. Odemwingie claimed he was told by his agent that a fee had been agreed and to make his way down to Loftus Road.
This may make you wonder why he is so sought after with five Premier League clubs reportedly interested and an unknown amount outside of England. The main reason behind this interest is that he is on the market for £1.5million, which for any Premier League striker is a good price.
This rumour sparked doubts and worries from some West Ham fans on Twitter. I for one claimed that the 32 year old Nigerian is worth the risk. My reasons to back up that comment will be included in this piece.
As I said above, the £1.5million price tag when dealing with Premier League money is miniscule. If Odemwingie turned out to have as much influence as Savio no one would bat an eyelid. Most people’s main concern is that he isn’t emotionally stable and risks the image of the club. Having said that, most people put the shame on Peter and not on West Brom. He also has had a few Twitter rants and told the world of his feelings of his West Brom career.
Odemwingie joined West Brom from Lokomotiv Moscow in 2010. He has made a total of 87 appearances to date for West Brom scoring 30 goals. In his first season Peter scored 15 league goals and showed his class, the next season this went down to 10 and then last year he scored just 5 league goals in 25 league appearances. Is this showing the influence of a change of managers which puts a player out of favour at the club or is it evidence of the demise of the player himself (perhaps a player who relies on being fast getting gradually slower)? I would suggest it is hard to tell which, but would also still suggest that at £1.5million he is certainly worth a punt as long as Big Sam feels he can focus the player on enjoying life at West Ham. If we were to sign him and to know he would definitely play up like he did at West Brom then the risk certainly wouldn’t be worth it, but if Sam feels he can take control then we could find ourselves a bargain.
A risk is just that, sometimes they pay off sometimes they don’t but when you’re only paying peanuts, it’s almost always worth it.
Buy him in the January window if you have a striker injury problem, but not at the start of the season as part of your main strike force. Steve Clarke at WBA isn’t a bad bloke & has quite a good set up. So the problems might be of Odemwingie’s making or he might just be not good enough anymore. In which case, he’s not good enough for WHU.
In any case I would suppose that he’s nowhere near Sam’s mindset at the moment. He could prove to be a false economy. We should be looking to get a striker who would be good for us for a few years to come. Anyway, if we’re gonna clutch at straws with going for this guy then Modibo Maiga is well worth a second chance.
Not worth the risk. The one thing you can’t put a price on is harmony and a good vibe throughout the team. We saw just what happens when the team isn’t a team. We got relegated, and it only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel. This guy is the incredible sulk. A divisive influence on any dressing room and we don’t need that.
The amount of hostility he’s received for this is amazing compared to some much worse events, is it really worse then sleeping with your brothers wife, or a team mates ex? I think he’s definitely worth buying for that much.
I think odemwingie is a decent player and could also play rw so I think he is worth the 1.5 million
£1.5m isn’t a bad price for someone who has played in the Premiership and scored a reasonable amount, would work well off Carroll’s knock downs, not too much to lose, if it doesn’t work out either
Buy him and crouch big lads on your head and cheap just perfect for our half owners.
at least he knows how to get to London.