The Daily Mirror has said that Andre-Pierre Gignac is one of twenty possible targets for West Ham United come January.
The striker is currently plying his trade at Marseille, having been there since 2010 after a transfer from previous club Toulouse. But is he a viable target? And is he what we actually need?
At 6 foot 1, Gignac seems to be a Big Sam kind of player. If/when Andy Carroll was injured, Gignac could prove an ideal replacement for the forward in Allardyce’s favourite one striker system. And at 28 years old, he does seem more of a long-term option than one of our other rumoured targets, Diego Forlan – who is 34.
Gignac has scored 22 in 76 appearances for Marseille. For you stats fans, that’s a goal in 29% of his games – the same as our favourite Geordie Andy Carroll’s West Ham goals to games percentage. Now that may not sound like an awful lot, but when you consider our current goal woes he could well be the man we’re looking for.
His time at Marseille also looks like it’s been quite shaky, with a bad patch meaning that the media and fans had been on his back a lot. This may mean that he’ll be looking to play his football elsewhere in the near future.
Realistically though, I’m not sure he’ll want to move out of France. He speaks about being very close to his mother, who lives in a small French village – he even sells his old clothes at her market stall with her! Maybe we can get her a stall at Queen’s Market…
What do you think? Is Gignac worth a punt? Who else would you want us to get in? Leave a comment or tweet me at @alwaysintune.
Would love WHU to sign him, but fear he will not join us. I REALLY FEAR that all this talk of big name signings will come to nothing and we will end up with another injury prone journeyman in the twilight of his career, with as much pace as a three toed sloth. Manager and Chairman really need to pull somthing out of the hat, and quick.
Spot on Dave, nobody worth anything is going to want to come to us playing the way we are and looking like we might be propping up the premier and if they do it will be for the wrong reason, the board paying them to much to do as little as they feel
would love us to sign D. Cvitanich from Nice and Aidan Mcgeady in on a free transfer to replace Jarvis