As I walked away from the Boleyn on Saturday downhearted, dejected and darn right annoyed, the confirmation was once again evident: West Ham United need a striker in January, everyone can see it.
As I flicked through the programme, my mood was slightly raised (not much though I add), amongst the propaganda that the West Ham programme is, I saw a small paragraph to offer us hope. In the Sam Allardyce’s column it read “We are also in the process of negotiating a deal to bring in when the transfer window opens and are hopeful of concluding that deal as soon as possible.”
Hurrah! I thought, as I delved further into my bag of skittles in a desperate attempt to cheer myself up. But then I racked my brain to try and work out whom. The list of names linked is endless, former Manchester United man Diego Forlan, Inter Milan stalwart Diego Milito (it seems Big Sam has a fetish for the name Diego at the minute.) and, most recently, Obafemi Martins, to name but a few.
Seattle Sounders’, Martins is a player who Sam Allardyce firmly denies having any interest in. Having studied journalism and how the media works now for nearly three years, I know to take everything with a pinch of salt.
Allardyce will be wary not to alert the availability of any player, having missed out on Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku and others in the summer window so by playing down speculation it allows him to keep the deal under wraps.
Allardyce is desperate for a striker and he will know that cheap and experienced is vitally important. Martins ticks both those boxes, he will be free due to the off season in the US and has Premier League experience where he bagged on average around ten goals a season. Sounds good right?
Now, I watched Martins in the Premier League and there is no doubting that he is a top finisher, but you have to question if he still has the legs.
Now, above when I mentioned taking things in the media with a pinch of salt, that is never more accurate than with African football players’ ages.
A quick look a Wikipedia will tell you that Nwankwo Kanu is 37 years of age, now you can tell me that until you are blue in the face and I will never believe you. Add 7-10 years to that and I might but 37? Never. So there should more than just a medical check on Martins there should be passport control check at the Hammers reception desk.
Now I haven’t seen Martins play since leaving the Premier League but from what I’ve heard and seen on Twitter, he hasn’t been pulling up any trees at Seattle Sounders since joining in 2013, having scored eight goals in 20 games. Not bad you may say, but the standard between these two leagues is immense, and a quick look at his Birmingham days – four appearance – suggest he didn’t have a great time of it.
Our struggles are more than apparent than ever now and they need sorting immediately, we need a player bang in form and a player who is willing to bust a gut to save this side from the inevitable at the minute, which is relegation. For me that isn’t a player looking for his last pay check, that is a player with hunger and desire.
Step forward Jermain Defoe. Your time is now, all is forgiven.
Tweet me @Bowdenwhu
Come on You Irons!
I have a feeling the player was Adebayour
and that the deal is now off as he may start playing at Spurs
Or it could’ve been Defoe who has now been convinced to go to Canada
Anyone see allardici and adebayor hug it out the other night?!
Could it be?
Don’t understand how u can say all is forgiven with Defoe. He’ll end up chasing money in mls and mug us all off like last time.
The trouble with the situation we now find ourselves in is that for every striker we are linked with there are just as many pro’s to signing them as there are cons! Defoe- despite being the fox in the box who could not only play as the lone striker but in a system that included Andy on his return,has a very poor goals return this season and contrived to miss any number of sitters when he played us this year! Then there is the fact that he is the original judas bastard! No amount of goal could ever change that! As for aderbayor- well, he could hit the ground running as when he first moves go a club he does tend to score a lot of goals! But this soon tails off, he is very lazy and is a known disruptive influence to any dressing room he has ever been in! Ba- proven goal scorer who will score a bucket full if given the service and his knees don’t give way! On the downside he is earning big big wages, and has been scoring goals in the champs league! So why would he want to give all that up for regular football in a relegation scrap? Done that before! Which brings me nicely to the terrible alleged racist treatment he received before he left the irons last time! Martins- not much going for him! After he left the toon where he had his most successful time, he was at best average! Plying his trade in the USA? Nuff said! As for other Mls players currently being touted, well Dempsey is never what you would call a prolific goal scorer and is recovering from injury! As for Keane well, my abiding memory of him is the staggering amount of sitters he managed to miss when brought in to save us the last time! The Blackpool game away particularly sticks in my mind and the half dozen at least contenders for miss of the season he served up that night! And he has also missed the Xmas party in Dublin to boot! So who does that leave? Not a lot to be honest! Even if we are looking at loan signings to plug the gap there still isn’t enough quality around to do the job required. Plus there is the tricky little problem of shifting all the dead wood to make way for any signings! Without leaving us short in case our injuries get any worse! There is also the problem of just who should get the bullet! There is not enough column inches to list all the prospective runners and riders! So all in all although everybody can see what the problems are providing creditable solutions are another matter! So again it is a case of keeping the faith and in big Sam we must trust! COYI!
Big Sam has to go, this team is the sum total of him in charge for 2 years!, we cannot string 4 passes together before a big hoof up the pitch, boring to watch AND it’s not getting results, sam’s brand of football is all that is wrong in the English game. Time to bring in an overseas coach like Southampton who plays the beautiful game the way it’s meant to be played, before this dinosaur takes us down, RANT OVER