Teddy Sheringham believes that West Ham United can win the Europa League this season – but feels they could have boosted their chances if they added a forward in January.
The Hammers are through to the last 16 of the second-tier European competition, and will be seeded for the draw when it takes place later this month.
The former England international said that it would be ‘unbelievable’ if the Hammers were to win the Europa League.
He said: “I [think West Ham could go all the way in the Europa League], yeah. I’d love to see West Ham go on a massive cup run like that, it would be unbelievable. You’ve got to look at where clubs are at the moment. When Manchester United have been in the Europa League, it’s like, ‘Yeah, they’ll win that, well done, they’re not in the Champions League.”
He added: “That would be so exciting for everyone at the football club to get a trophy like that. Amazing.”
TIF Thoughts on West Ham’s chances of winning the Europa League…
Michail Antonio was on fine form in the early stages of this season’s Premier League, scoring six goals in his opening eight games. However, since then, he has seemingly run out of steam as he has scored just twice in his last 16 league appearances.
Another striker was arguably required for the Hammers in January but they failed to get anybody through the door. It was crucial for David Moyes to bring in someone to either support Antonio or replace him given the cluster of games coming up if they progress in Europe.
Whilst West Ham currently sit fourth in the league, they have a lack of depth in more areas than the forward line and experienced a poor run in form just before Christmas when they had several defenders missing through injury.
However, with the persistent good form of players like Jarrod Bowen and Declan Rice, they could have enough firepower to go all the way in the competition.