West Ham are on the lookout for a new striker in January after question marks over their current players, according to the West Ham Way podcast.
ExWHUemployee, a reliable source of club news, said on the latest episode that the club had been scouting a number of players and put out one name – 25-year-old Tanzania international Mbwana Samatta, currently playing for Genk in Belgium.
“We’re looking at forwards in January,” ExWHUemployee said, “with question marks over Arnautovic and his knee, Hernandez and his illness, Antonio doesn’t seem to be able to play up front and Perez hasn’t set the world alight since he’s been here.
“We have been looking at forwards, scouting some players and there has been some talk of Samatta who plays in Belgium. He’s got a very good goals to games ratio this season.”
Good move for West Ham?
He’s an international striker with 16 goals in 43 games, and a top-flight pro with 14 goals in 16 games across all competitions this season. Sounds good? Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to tell how that form would translate into the Premier League. In fact we’d almost say the stats are pretty meaningless. The Belgian league is much weaker and the best international side he’s scored against is probably Morocco. That’s not to say that he wouldn’t be a hit at the London Stadium, but he’d be a risk, albeit a fairly cheap one. We’re not sure his name is going to fill West Ham fans with excitement though.
This is Futbol rating: 5/10
Likely to happen?
We do think West Ham will sign a striker in the January window. They’ve been left short this season and the rule of Andy Carroll is that you can’t rely on Andy Carroll. Unfortunately, Pellegrini doesn’t seem to be able to rely on Michail Antonio either and doesn’t seem to want to rely on Lucas Perez. Arnautovic is the main man but he’s struggling with a knee injury and Pellegrini needs solid back up. We’re not sure that’s Samatta though. It was also mentioned that West Ham were looking in the French league so it seems they might be trying to unearth a bargain.
This is Futbol rating: 4/10