In this summer’s transfer window, West Ham signed three strikers. Mauro Zarate, Enner Valencia, and Diafra Sakho have all arrived at Upton Park and, despite having had limited time on the pitch so far, all three have made a decent start to life in claret and blue. Zarate ran the show against Crystal Palace last month and got a debut goal. Sakho scored against Sheffield United and Valencia has looked reasonably bright.
So has Sam Allardyce finally made a group of successful forward signings for West Ham? If history is anything to go by we shouldn’t be too quick to get our hopes up. Here I look back at some of the strikers he has signed during each transfer window while he has been West Ham boss and how they have fared.
Summer 2011
In his first transfer window with West Ham, we were in the Championship and he made the signings of Sam Baldock from MK Dons, and Brian Montenegro from Deportivo Maldonado on loan. Baldock made 23 appearances the following season and scored just five goals. Montenegro never made a senior appearance for the Hammers.
Overall: Two signings; 23 appearances, five goals.
January 2012
Ricardo Vaz Te and Nicky Maynard were scoring well in the Championship and were snapped up by West Ham in the January transfer window. Vaz Te has made more than 50 appearances for West Ham and has scored 15 goals. It mustn’t be forgotten that he regularly plays out wide but he often shoots more than most to. As for Maynard, he only made 14 appearances and only scored a measly two goals.
Overall: Two signings; 63 appearances, 17 goals.
Summer 2012
Following promotion to the Premier League. Andy Carroll and Modibo Maiga were signed. Carroll was only a loan signing at this point and he made 24 appearances and scored a reasonable seven goals. Maiga made 31 appearances and scored just three goals.
Overall: Two signings, 55 appearances, 10 goals.
January 2013
This window triggered a few more striker signings, which contributed exactly zero goals. Sean Maguire was signed with the future in mind and hasn’t played a game for the first team to date. Wellington Paulista didn’t make an appearance and Marouane Chamakh was signed from Arsenal on loan and made three appearances without scoring.
Overall: Three signings; three appearances, zero goals.
Summer 2013
Carroll was signed on a permanent deal in the summer of 2013, along with the free signing of Mladen Petric and the resigning of Carlton Cole after the big man was originally released. Andy Carroll is still yet to stay fit for a long period of time and subsequently he has made 15 appearances and has scored twice. As for Petric, he made just three appearances and didn’t score a goal. Carlton’s return has treated us to a further seven goals in 26 appearances.
Overall: Three signings; 44 appearances, 9 goals.
January 2014
Two more striker signings were made in January 2014. Marco Borriello made two appearances and surprisingly didn’t score in that short period of time. Jaanai Gordon was another signing for the future and he is yet to make a senior appearance for West Ham.
Overall: Two signings; Two appearances, 0 goals.
Conculsion
West Ham’s forward signings under Big Sam have not excelled. He has made a total of 14 signings (including loan and permanent deal for Carroll) and these signings have scored a total of 41 goals in a combined total of 190 appearances. Let’s hope for a more successful future from West Ham’s summer striker signings.
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