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West Ham have bought Fool's Gold - and here's why
Jason Pettigrove argues that Slaven Bilic’s new Hammers might not prove to be the best tools in the box…
On the face of it, West Ham have done some reasonable transfer business in the summer. Chicharito, Joe Hart, Marko Arnautovic and Pablo Zabaleta are all names that are a level above those usually associated with the east Londoners.
However, scratch the surface and it immediately becomes clear why these players have become available and shows, once again, a lack of nous from those completing the deals.
While it’s generally accepted that West Ham’s significant stadium upgrade has provided associated footfall and set the tills ringing and season ticket purchases ablaze, the fact remains that of all of the Premier League clubs in London, the Hammers are still near the bottom of the pile. They can’t compete with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham on any level.
READ MORE: The 10 worst signings of the Transfer Window
READ MORE: Why did so many players REJECT Chelsea?
The supporters are excited just now, but once the truth dawns on them – that they’ve been sold some old bangers rather than well-oiled machines – the familiar refrains will be heard from the London Stadium going fraternity.
Take Javier Hernandez for example. Two goals in two appearances has got everyone suggesting that the new Tony Cottee is in town. A predatory marksman who’ll get you 20 goals a season from.
But the Little Pea has never scored that many and has only come close to it (17) once. In the last seven years, he has only scored 92 goals in all competitions and just this past season in the Bundesliga, with respect a league that’s not as strong as the Premier League, he didn’t score for 120 days – from the start of October 2016 until the end of January 2017.
At 29 years of age, he has ‘experience’ but not the firepower required for England’s top flight.
They’ve always loved a big forward who can put themselves about a bit at West Ham but Marko Arnautovic doesn’t tick all of the boxes. For a start, his 22 goals in 127 EPL career appearances is awful. A one in five conversion rate for your record signing; Are you kidding me?
For a big man, he’s never found the target with his head and his shooting accuracy of 27% doesn’t deserve to see him in this division let alone this team.
As we saw against Southampton too, he can easily be got at. Slaven Bilic rightly castigated the Austrian for his wayward elbow that saw him sent off. The Croatian will know that when you go to war, you need people to put in a shift in the trenches not go running over enemy lines and get captured at the first attempt. At 28 years of age, Arnautovic should know better.
Pablo Zabaleta is an honest professional who has had a great career. HAD a great career. His purchase smacks of a typical West Ham buy, frankly. A reasonably big draw, but someone who has seen better days.
If David Gold and David Sullivan do truly aspire to seeing their team consistently in the upper echelons of the Premier League and in Europe, they need to be shopping at Harrods, not Tesco.
Which brings us finally to Zabaleta’s old Manchester City team-mate, Joe Hart.
The keeper has clearly lost his grip on the England number one shirt, and that’s no real surprise considering he’s not been able to keep a clean sheet in the last 22 games!
A loan spell to Torino was a disaster and one thing you want from your keeper is confidence. After already conceding seven in his opening two matches for the east Londoners, Hart’s is shot to pieces.
You’ve heard of Fool’s Gold? That’s precisely what West Ham have landed themselves with.
