West Ham completed a hat trick of new signings on transfer deadline day but can the new boys make the desired impact during the next 4 months to ensure our Premiership survival?
Benni McCarthy
Age: 32
Career record: Played 358 Scored 146
Goal to games ratio: 1 every 2.5 games
Highest scoring season in league: 24 (Blackburn 2006-07 season)
The most skillful and experienced of the 3 new strikers. Given a generous contract length of 2 and a half seasons, due to our need to sign an established forward. He will likely be paired upfront with Carlton Cole against Burnely.
Benni still possess the technical ability but the question marks will be over his fitness, he reportedly hasn’t been in full training since Christmas. According to Sam Allardyce he’s a player who performs well when he first signs for a club but can be lazy needing “other players to pick up his work load.” Within a 4-4-2 formation Benni can be effective as a goal poacher with Cole falling back deeper.
Mido
Age: 26
Career record: Played 207 Scored 67
Goal to games ratio: 1 every 3.4 games
Highest scoring season in league: 12 (Ajax 2001-02)
David Sullivan described signing Mido as “one of the best deals ever.” under normal circumstances Mido would have been an awful signing made out of desperation but as he was prepared to sign until the end of the season on nominal £1,000 a week wages this is a no risk gamble defintely worth taking.
Mido’s career has gone off the rails and he can’t find the back of the net, not good enough for Boro, his goal to games ratio in the last 3 and a half seasons is 1 in every 5.1. However with a new sense of motivation behind him and still only 26 he might be able to come close to recreating his first loan spell at Tottenham. If he chips in with 4 or 5 goals before the end of the season and then we let him move on that’s a great bit of business. If not, oh well plumbers earn more than him apparently!
Ilan Araujo Dall’Igna
Age: 29
Career record: Played 249 Scored 75
Goal to games ratio: 1 every 3.1 games
Highest scoring season in league: 13 (Sochaux 2004-05)
Signed as a free agent, Ilan’s claim to fame is that he scored the French Ligue 1 goal of the season in 2007, an acrobatic over head kick. He was released early from his contract at Saint-Étienne after he fell down the pecking order.
With 4 other strikers to compete with now at West Ham (Cole, McCarthy, Franco, Nouble) His chances are likely to be with stricted to a few substitute appearances. Hopefully he can make the most of the minutes he gets in pursuit of a new contract but will almost certainly be released in the Summer.
