Recent reports suggest West Ham are turning their attention to signing a striker to enhance our attacking options, with no shortage of top quality strikers linked including Loic Remy, Javier Hernandez, Charlie Austin, Mattia Destro and Seydou Doumbia. With the exception of Doumbia, who doesn’t impress me very much regardless of how prolific he was in Russia, these names are of real quality and would all represent great additions to the squad.
Obviously there is always a space for a quality forward bit if we didn’t manage to sign one before the deadline would it really be the end of the world?
Elliot Lee was a name that many fans were hoping to see on the team sheet in the latter stages of last season when goals were at a premium but he only featured in a cameo appearance in the last game of the campaign at Newcastle, appearing as a substitute when we were already 1-0 down.
Lee has been at the club since he was an 8-year-old and has spoken of his gratitude to be given a chance to wear the shirt. In Andorra last week, he scored his first senior goal on his first senior start, an impressive finish as well!
If Lee can start a few more games in the Europa League and get on the score sheet maybe the gaffer will trust him that little bit more and hand him the opportunity he is clearly craving, a chance to prove himself in the best league in the world.
Similarly, new signing Martin Samuelson looked mightily impressive at Peterborough in our first pre-season friendly not only with his confident finish but with his overall gameplay. Perhaps he will be thinking in a similar way to Lee, get your head down and work hard to force your way into the manager’s plans and then take your chance.
With the visit of FC Birkirkara this Thursday I would be quite happy to see a strong defence and midfield supporting an upfront duo of Lee and Samuelson.
This is the team I would choose to play FC Birkirkara:
Randolph, O’Brien, Tomkins, Oxford, Hendrie, Amalfitano, Noble, Obiang, Jarvis, Lee, Samuelson.
I feel this side carries a good mix of first team, back-up and youth players to ensure we win the game comfortably. Therefore, we don’t risk injuries to our first team and other players will be given the experience and opportunity to express themselves in a competitive, European fixture.
Samuelson is more of an attacking midfielder than a forward
Also lee needs to go on loan ideally in the championship and score regularly as he is not ready yet for the first team
The Andorra team was very poor so we do need at least one more forward if not two
To enter the season with what we have up front and rely on youth would be very dangerous indeed.
Well Lukaku will miss not being in the Europa this season. Worth a bid, as Sam tried his hardest to sign him. Maybe Bilic would be more of an attraction for him to work under. If by some chance this could happen then this would be a double win, as Lukaku could continue with his Europa appearances and we would get rid of our No 1 bogey man who would be scoring for us & not against us for a change!