It is a position that has plagued West Ham United in their modern history.
Since David Sullivan took over in January 2010, they have spent more than £300million ($382m) on more than 50 forwards in an attempt to solve their goalscoring problem. There have been more misses than hits.
Signings have included woeful loans such as Simone Zaza and Jonathan Calleri, expensive flops in Sebastien Haller and Gianluca Scamacca (the pair cost a combined £75.5m), and Dean Ashton, who was outstanding before his career was sadly curtained by injury.
It is still an area that needs a solution, and Julen Lopetegui believes he has found one in £27million signing Niclas Fullkrug from Borussia Dortmund . The 31-year-old striker signed a four-year deal this week.
West Ham need the signing to pay off, lest he become one of the club’s many recent strikers who have failed to fulfil expectations.
This is the story of how West Ham went from Victor Obinna to Fullkrug, with a lot of misfires along the way.
Forwards have failed to impress in east London for a multitude of reasons. Karren Brady once branded Benni McCarthy “a big fat mistake”; players thought Wellington Paulista had won a competition to visit the training ground only to discover he was their new team-mate; while Jack Sullivan, the son of majority shareholder David Sullivan, tweeted his dismay at the signing of Marouane Chamakh.
Obinna, who joined on loan from Inter Milan in the summer of 2010, is one of the few forwards signed under Sullivan who had some modest success. “I know when I arrived fans would have thought, ‘Who is this guy?’” he says. “But I felt no pressure when I joined. I wasn’t scared. I saw it as an opportunity to prove myself in England. I had played for Inter Milan, Nigeria and in a World Cup, so I backed myself to do well at West Ham.”
Obinna scored eight goals across 32 appearances and memorably assisted four goals in the 4-0 FA Cup victory over Manchester United . However, he was at West Ham in the Avram Grant era, during which West Ham finished bottom of the Premier League in 2010-11 and were relegated to the
Championship.
Another relative success was Obinna’s team-mate, Demba Ba. Stoke City and
Everton — the latter managed by David Moyes — were favourites to sign Ba from Hoffenheim in January 2011. West Ham had offered £6million, but Stoke City were in pole position with a £12m bid. However, their medical staff discovered fluid in Ba’s knee, which saw the deal fall through. West Ham returned with a much lower bid and a contract contingent on Ba’s ability to play. He signed until June.
Ba scored seven goals in 12 matches, but it was not enough to prevent relegation. “It was a good dressing room, but ultimately we didn’t have the necessary quality,” he told The Athletic in 2021 .
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Another modest success of that era was Frederic Piquionne, who arrived in the summer of 2010 and scored 11 goals in 62 appearances in all competitions. He left for MLS side Portland Timbers in 2013.
It was Gianfranco Zola who signed McCarthy, then 32, from Blackburn Rovers in January 2010. He signed an 18-month deal but failed to score in 14 appearances. Egyptian striker Mido joined on loan in the same window on a contract paying him just £1,000 a week. He failed to score in nine league appearances.
Under Sam Allardyce, from 2011 to 2015, the failure continued. West Ham did not have a director of football, so agents would often pitch players to Sullivan and Allardyce. Arrivals included Paulista, Brian Montenegro, John Carew, Modibo Maiga and Nene — they scored a combined total of six league goals in 61 appearances. But one of the most infamous signings was Chamakh, who arrived on loan from
Arsenal in January 2013.
The striker struggled with first-team opportunities at his parent club and West Ham needed to bolster their attacking options. Former West Ham midfielder Alou Diarra warned him about joining West Ham — Diarra, a former France international, felt moving to the Premier League side was a bad career move and was concerned Chamakh would suffer a similar experience. That proved the case.
When Chamakh signed, Jack Sullivan, son of co-owner David, tweeted: “I am very sorry about this news, Chamakh has signed a six-month loan deal! Not my pick.” He deleted the tweet and later posted that he hoped Chamakh would prove him wrong, but the forward was unable to do so, failing to score and making just three appearances.
“I made a bad choice,” Chamakh told L’Equipe. “It didn’t go well at all. The manager promised me that, with Andy Carroll’s injury, I was going to be able to play. He did not keep his word at all,” Chamakh said. That’s why I took a bit of time to say yes to Crystal Palace (in 2013). I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.”
Sean Maguire and Paulista were the other arrivals in January 2013. Maguire, who joined from Irish side Waterford United, was considered one for the future. Paulista joined on a six-month loan from Brazilian club Cruzeiro and West Ham had the option for a further three years. Wellington competed with Carlton Cole, Ricardo Vaz Te, Chamakh and Andy Carroll for a starting berth. The forward backed his chances.
“I think I can do my best here and I am coming to England to prove to everyone that I am one of the best strikers in Brazil,” said Paulista. The Brazilian failed to make a first-team appearance. Some of the club’s players were allegedly shocked when they were informed he was their new team-mate.
Allardyce did not approve of Paulista’s arrival but did give the green light to the signing of Andy Carroll, who joined for a then club-record £15million from Liverpool . Allardyce turned down the chance to sign Wilfried Bony, in favour of Carroll, who Allardyce and staff enjoyed working with. But while he is considered one of the better strikers West Ham have signed in the past 14 years, injuries hampered his development. He scored 34 goals across 142 appearances.
Joining West Ham from Bristol City for £1.5million in January 2012 was a big career move for Nicky Maynard. West Ham were in the Championship and Maynard was signed to boost their chances of returning to the top-flight, but Maynard’s excitement soon faded when he learned what Allardyce had planned for him.
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“Sam talked about how big West Ham was and the way the team will play,” he says. “He said the team create a lot of chances but don’t really put the chances away, so he made me very excited about playing and getting on the end of those chances — but I didn’t realise that Sam’s idea of a chance was a long cross into the box. That wasn’t what I viewed as a chance.”
Maynard lasted six months at West Ham, helping them win promotion back to the Premier League via the play-offs, but of their 21 league and play-off games after he signed, he started only seven and scored three goals.
“The more games I played, the more I realised that the way Sam wanted to play didn’t really suit me at the time. Sam liked to play with one up top, which would’ve been John Carew or Carlton Cole because they were big men. I played out wide in a front three in a few games, which was out of my comfort zone. I was trying to adapt because I wanted to play, but I was never going to be as effective out wide as I would have been as a No 9.
“The goal against Cardiff (in the second leg of the play-off semi-final) was my only goal at the Boleyn Ground. That’s probably my best memory at West Ham and I remember when I scored I hit the corner flag and that was more out of frustration. (Allardyce’s assistant) Wally Downes was trying to fire me up on the bench, saying “If you come on, don’t mess this up’. Then I said, ‘If you get me on, I will score’. It proved that given the opportunity I know what I’m capable of.”
In the summer of 2012, Maynard joined Cardiff City. That year, Modibo Maiga arrived from French side Sochaux but had a paltry return of four league goals in 34 appearances during his three-year spell.
Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho are two successes from Allardyce’s time in charge. Valencia was signed following his impressive performances for
Ecuador at the 2014 World Cup. The forward scored three goals before their group-stage elimination. He scored 10 goals in 68 appearances for West Ham from 2014 to 2017.
Sakho was a fan favourite, scoring 24 goals in 71 appearances, but he also earned his fair share of media coverage, crashing his Lamborghini and then leaving it at the training ground after finalising a move to Rennes.
The forwards signed under Slaven Bilic did little to ease offensive worries. Ashley Fletcher , Calleri, Zaza and others struggled, while Andre Ayew , a £20million signing from
Swansea City, had modest success.
“We couldn’t all have the X factor like Dimitri Payet (at West Ham 2015-2017, scoring 15 goals in 60 appearances),” says Nikica Jelavic. “He was the star of our team and was a special player. I joined West Ham on the last day of the transfer window and he was flying by that point. He had a big impact on the team and he was a key player for us. I wanted to do better and help the team more, but we had a star in Payet, so it made it easier for us forwards to be in the backroom while he shone. It reached a point where you couldn’t imagine the team without him.”
Jelavic, who was at West Ham from September 2015 to February 2016 and scored two goals in 15 appearances, was not the only former striker to be candid about his struggles. Former Italy international Zaza joined on loan from Juventus in August 2016, but after 11 appearances and no goals, his loan was cut short.
“It was a very difficult time for me,” he told Superdeporte. “When I joined from Juventus, I was very optimistic, I wanted to experience playing in England. Everything started badly from the outset. I think the main blame lies with me because I was not right mentally, I was very negative and in all the things that happened; I never saw the positive side. Now I feel bad not to have shown in England what I’m capable of.”
Jordan Hugill was 27 years old when he was signed by Moyes for £10million from Preston North End on deadline day in January 2018. He only played three games for West Ham in the remainder of that campaign, against Brighton & Hove Albion,
Watford and Southampton . His appearances all came from the bench, totalling 22 minutes and no goals.
“I have no regrets over joining West Ham,” says Hugill. “It’s something I’d do over and over again. I left a Championship club in Preston to play in the Premier League. It was always my dream to play in the Premier League. (Mark) Noble was brilliant for me from the first day I moved to the club.
“When I first signed, I was a bit nervous because I was seeing all these names that I had seen on the telly. To be honest, I was starstruck walking into the changing room. I was thinking to myself, ‘Do I deserve to be sat here with all these good players?’. From the moment I walked into the dressing room, Mark walked over and introduced himself. He gave me his number and then introduced me to everyone. He helped me out a lot.”
Moyes missed out on signing Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Julian Alvarez while manager. For most of his four-and-a-half-year spell, he played Michail Antonio , naturally a winger, as a forward. In the latter stages, he also transitioned Jarrod Bowen into a centre-forward, which had the desired effect. Bowen equalled Paolo Di Canio’s Premier League record (17) for goals in a single season by a West Ham player.
During Moyes’ break from the club, while Manuel Pellegrini was manager, West Ham spent a club-record £45million to sign Haller from
Eintracht Frankfurt in July 2019. He scored 14 goals in 54 appearances and joined Ajax for £20m 18 months later.
“West Ham was challenging, but I learned a lot,” he told The Athletic earlier this year . “It was a nice experience, even if I left after 18 months. It was way too short, but I had to make a decision. I could stay on the bench and not be useful, but even if I play I’m probably not the right man for the team, or go somewhere with someone I know.”
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Having watched West Ham’s hunt for a No 9 from afar, Obinna believes it could be the key to the success or otherwise of the Lopetegui era. “I would love to play up front for the club, but I’m happily retired,” he deadpans. “I was so happy when the club won the Conference League, now they need a top striker to put them on the map again.”
Only time will tell if Fullkrug will be West Ham’s long-term solution, but an encouraging start would set him apart from some of the other 50+ forwards the club has signed.
(Top photos: Sebastien Haller by Ben Stansall/AFP; Gianluca Scamacca by Paul Harding; both via Getty Images) West Ham strikers bought under Sullivan.Forwards have failed to impress in east London for a multitude of reasons. Karren Brady once branded Benni McCarthy “a big fat mistake”; players thought Wellington Paulista had won a competition to visit the training ground only to discover he was their new team-mate; while Jack Sullivan, the son of majority shareholder David Sullivan, tweeted his dismay at the signing of Marouane Chamakh.Obinna, who joined on loan from Inter Milan in the summer of 2010, is one of the few forwards signed under Sullivan who had some modest success. “I know when I arrived fans would have thought, ‘Who is this guy?’” he says. “But I felt no pressure when I joined. I wasn’t scared. I saw it as an opportunity to prove myself in England. I had played for Inter Milan, Nigeria and in a World Cup, so I backed myself to do well at West Ham.”
Obinna scored eight goals across 32 appearances and memorably assisted four goals in the 4-0 FA Cup victory over Manchester United . However, he was at West Ham in the Avram Grant era, during which West Ham finished bottom of the Premier League in 2010-11 and were relegated to the
Championship.Another relative success was Obinna’s team-mate, Demba Ba. Stoke City and
Everton — the latter managed by David Moyes — were favourites to sign Ba from Hoffenheim in January 2011. West Ham had offered £6million, but Stoke City were in pole position with a £12m bid. However, their medical staff discovered fluid in Ba’s knee, which saw the deal fall through. West Ham returned with a much lower bid and a contract contingent on Ba’s ability to play. He signed until June.
Ba scored seven goals in 12 matches, but it was not enough to prevent relegation. “It was a good dressing room, but ultimately we didn’t have the necessary quality,” he told The Athletic in 2021 .Another modest success of that era was Frederic Piquionne, who arrived in the summer of 2010 and scored 11 goals in 62 appearances in all competitions. He left for MLS side Portland Timbers in 2013.
It was Gianfranco Zola who signed McCarthy, then 32, from Blackburn Rovers in January 2010. He signed an 18-month deal but failed to score in 14 appearances. Egyptian striker Mido joined on loan in the same window on a contract paying him just £1,000 a week. He failed to score in nine league appearances.Under Sam Allardyce, from 2011 to 2015, the failure continued. West Ham did not have a director of football, so agents would often pitch players to Sullivan and Allardyce. Arrivals included Paulista, Brian Montenegro, John Carew, Modibo Maiga and Nene — they scored a combined total of six league goals in 61 appearances. But one of the most infamous signings was Chamakh, who arrived on loan from
Arsenal in January 2013.
The striker struggled with first-team opportunities at his parent club and West Ham needed to bolster their attacking options. Former West Ham midfielder Alou Diarra warned him about joining West Ham — Diarra, a former France international, felt moving to the Premier League side was a bad career move and was concerned Chamakh would suffer a similar experience. That proved the case.
When Chamakh signed, Jack Sullivan, son of co-owner David, tweeted: “I am very sorry about this news, Chamakh has signed a six-month loan deal! Not my pick.” He deleted the tweet and later posted that he hoped Chamakh would prove him wrong, but the forward was unable to do so, failing to score and making just three appearances.
“I made a bad choice,” Chamakh told L’Equipe. “It didn’t go well at all. The manager promised me that, with Andy Carroll’s injury, I was going to be able to play. He did not keep his word at all,” Chamakh said. That’s why I took a bit of time to say yes to Crystal Palace (in 2013). I didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.”
Sean Maguire and Paulista were the other arrivals in January 2013. Maguire, who joined from Irish side Waterford United, was considered one for the future. Paulista joined on a six-month loan from Brazilian club Cruzeiro and West Ham had the option for a further three years. Wellington competed with Carlton Cole, Ricardo Vaz Te, Chamakh and Andy Carroll for a starting berth. The forward backed his chances.
“I think I can do my best here and I am coming to England to prove to everyone that I am one of the best strikers in Brazil,” said Paulista. The Brazilian failed to make a first-team appearance. Some of the club’s players were allegedly shocked when they were informed he was their new team-mate.
Allardyce did not approve of Paulista’s arrival but did give the green light to the signing of Andy Carroll, who joined for a then club-record £15million from Liverpool . Allardyce turned down the chance to sign Wilfried Bony, in favour of Carroll, who Allardyce and staff enjoyed working with. But while he is considered one of the better strikers West Ham have signed in the past 14 years, injuries hampered his development. He scored 34 goals across 142 appearances.
Joining West Ham from Bristol City for £1.5million in January 2012 was a big career move for Nicky Maynard. West Ham were in the Championship and Maynard was signed to boost their chances of returning to the top-flight, but Maynard’s excitement soon faded when he learned what Allardyce had planned for him.