On the face of it a list of the worst five strikers to have played for West Ham United in recent years seemed to be an easy nights work.
The usual suspects of Boogers, Radicioiu, Boere, Newell & Small came immediately to mind, with Radford, Greaves, McDougall, Kelly & Chapman added shortly after.
With honourable mentions for Greaves, Hales, Allen, Quinn & Rosenior we had our nominees in place who would all merit consideration of a top five placing.
However it was not so clear as to how the top five would qualify for the name and shame? Should it be based on the list of players that came to the club with impressive reputations but who appeared to view a playing career at Upton Park as one last pay day before their careers in top flight football fizzle out?
Should scoring records be taken into account, in which case would that need to reflect the quality of the players around him and the service provided?
Should the ineffective be penalised more than the indifferent?
Would the unimpressive be judged more than the uninterested?
Could the silky skills of Derek Hales be compared against the hard working but equally unimpressive Ted McDougall?
In the end it seemed fair that a combination of all of the above, with a dose of gut instinct and alcohol ravaged memories thrown in, would suffice for the purposes of the judging process.
And so after much deliberation, with the forgoing in mind, and in no particular order my final five worst strikers to have played for West Ham United in recent years are listed as Radicioiu, Kelly, Hales, Boere & Newell. No doubt you will have your own variation but will no doubt contain a player or two from the aforementioned lists.
Hang on a minute what about Dowie? Give me that list back ……………….
Katan todorov diawara henri and titi camara sears chamak mellor savio dumitrescu suker holligan omoyinmi cisse mido mccarthy keane(my personnal worst)i could go on for ages that is just some from 90s and 2000s
The champ must be David Kelly. He spent more time on his arse than his feet. He couldn’t trap a bag of cement. He was the worst no question
Surely Davor Suker must be in the top 5. along with Titi Camara, Boogers of course, all 3 Redknapp signings, and Katan and the shameless Benni McDonut……
It’s impossible to compare the ‘old style’ players as the game is completely changed today, so the Jimmy Greaves of the 70’s (despite a 1 in 3 goal ratio) can’t really compete.
CC, are people for real. As usual a forum with clueless supporters. He is nowhere near one of our worst strikers. A good player for an average club. I get stunned more and more very day by the utter tripe fans write. We are not Barcelona, we are West Ham. Cold did a decent enough job. Not a world beater but a good professional. Lets not forget he did not cost 10 million pound and yes, his finishing wasn’t great but was a handful and scored some important goals. Also showed loyalty which is missing from most these days.
Dave Swindlehurst for me!!
A 10-0 win against Bury and our main striker scored how many of them? …….. NONE !
Sandy Clarke
John Radford
Titti Camara
Benni Mcarthy
Tony Cottee scored 4 Memory recalls he was a striker!
Joe beachamp,the oxford utd striker we signed and went AWOL on route to upton park.samasi abou,paul kitson,and ex leeds striker with the ex tasty wife,who was so bad i cant remember his name.
Lee Chapman
Sandy Clarke takes some beating probably equalled though by Benni McCarthy.I’m old enough to remember John Radford scoring once home to Coventry but it was disallowed for offside !! did he ever score a legitimate goal for us ??
Iain Dowie for me going a year without a goal only to break his non-scoring run in a cup tie against I think Stockport with the best header I’ve seen him score pity it was in our net