West Ham had an extremely positive summer transfer window that saw some excellent players join the side. Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmalenko and Carlos Sanchez can all be considered marquee signings while the additions of Jack Wilshere and Lukasz Fabianski brought some much-required premier league experience.
With 3 quality strikers in Javier Hernandez, Marko Arnautovic and Andy Carroll already available to them, West Ham only made 1 relatively minor striker signing in the summer – that was for Lucas Perez of Arsenal.
Marko Arnautovic has ended up as the first choice striker for the Hammers with Chicharito and Carroll often simply providing backup. He has scored 7 goals for them in 15 appearances so far this term with only Felipe Anderson getting more for the club at 8 albeit with 6 extra appearances.
While Michail Antonio has also been deployed in that striker position this term, the only player capable of providing ample striking support to Marko is Chicharito. He is an experienced campaigner who has lit the Premier League on fire during his time at Manchester United.
Arnautovic, for all his amazing qualities, is a rather injury prone striker and for a team like that, leaving just the misfiring Carroll and extremely inconsistent Antonio and Perez just wouldn’t do the job. It is essential that Manuel Pellegrini is able to keep the Mexican in London.
He has pitched in with 4 goals in the league so far this season from 14 appearances – 7 of them coming off the bench to replace one of the other strikers. On the other hand, Carroll, Antonio and Perez have only scored 4 goals between them this term which is a very questionable stat considering these are all experienced Premier League players.
Reports have recently emerged from MARCA claiming that Valencia boss Marcelinho is keen on the signing of Chicharito from West Ham to resolve his team’s attacking woes, further worrying the Hammers’ faithful. The report also suggests that he would replace Michy Batshuayi in the side, who is unhappy with the playing time he has received since arriving on loan from Chelsea.
Chicharito has scored some crucial game-winning goals for top European sides including some unforgettable ones at Manchester United. His quality isn’t something that Pellegrini should overlook as finding a striker to replace him could end up being near impossible in today’s market, considering that the other options available just aren’t of the same crop.
