Much has been made since our record breaking season ended on the 15th of May, not least of all our attempts at finding a ‘world class’ and ’20 goal a season striker’.
For me, although it would be pleasing to see, it is not a necessity for our team. Our current crop of players are for me the best I’ve seen, granted that only makes them the best West Ham team of the last decade. But the fact remains, if a big addition was made one of the players who made themselves a fans’ favourite last year would be the sacrificial first teamer which is something at this point I’m still not too sure about.
However it seems that the two Davids and Slaven will make a move for a top striker and whether it’s a success or not it is a statement of intent. On a personal note if the conclusion is that a top striker is abundantly necessary I hope that the striker the club turns to is one that has not yet been mentioned in this off season but was in fact heavily linked with a move to East London last year.
The goal getter than I am referring to Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez. When I see that the club are making bids of €52 million and €31 million for players in the French league who do not have proven pedigree in the English top flight I am in despair. Hernandez had an outrageously good season in the Bundesliga this year so much so that he won the league’s player of the month award for an outstanding three months in a row!
Moreover, the Mexican was interested in a move to us. This is more than we can say for half of our current targets, we know this to be true as talks were successful last year but it was a case of us not wanting to reach the player’s wage demands, these demands may still be just as high but with the money we shall gain through premier league TV rights they would hardly be a stretch too far as they were last year.
Also I would be much more inclined to meet those asking points of the contract given that the player is now coming off the back of a season where he scored scored 17 goals as oppose to a season where he failed to impress at two major clubs ( Manchester United and Real Madrid ). In addition the signing of a man with one of the best minutes per goal ratios in Premier League history would seemingly be affordable given that either of the bids we made for the Ligue 1 strikers would more than double how much Leverkusen paid for the little Mexican.
For me Javier Hernandez fits the bill perfectly. He would probably cost the club somewhere in the region of 20-30 million as Bayer Leverkusen would want their just rewards for helping the clinical finisher return to form. Throughout his career in Europe he has shown himself to be clinical. His unorthodox finishing skills make him hard to defend against and his aerial ability for someone of 5ft 9 is remarkable.
And finally, although he hasn’t regularly scored 20 goals a season this may purely be because he hasn’t had the opportunity. Chicharito has always , aside from the past season, been used as an impact player or as a secondary striker. I believe as the main man he could get 20 goals with ease in the Premier league and so for me it is Javier Hernandez who ticks the necessary boxes for us to warrant spending a record amount on a striker.
