By Alex Akins ’18
Thank God we’re not Newcastle.
This is what is in the mind of every West Ham fan right now. Just yesterday, it was announced that crucial forward Diafra Sakho will miss the rest of the season with a leg injury.
Add that on top of Dimitri Payet being out for three more months, and you have a championship caliber team. West Ham started the season off brilliantly, which gave false hope to every Hammers fan. At one point, West Ham was in third and had beaten Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool. But as of recent form of DLDL, notable games being the 2-1 loss to newly promoted side Watford, the loss to London rival Spurs 4-1, and the draw to West Brom 1-1 (West Ham scored both of the goals). Sakho played in both of those games, reminding every West Ham fan out there, that Payet is the entire team. Now without Sakho, the team will travel to face off against Manchester Utd. But instead of having a decent striker in Sakho up front to miss all of our lucky chances we have Andy Carroll.
Andy Carroll is the worst player in the Premier League. Only Andy Carroll, a striker, could keep an entire team onside, attempt a Cruyff turn near our goal line, give the ball up to the opposing team, and watch them score. Only Andy Carroll could make that same mistake twice in the same game, causing West Ham to lose 2-1. Only Andy Carroll could cause so much frustration in a fan base with some of the lowest expectations in the league (avoid relegation). I will give credit to Andy for scoring the winning goal against Chelsea, but it was a header, and that is the only reason he is on the team. To score headers. Carroll is 6’4”, headers should be basic nature to him, but Carroll appears to not have the mindset to get into position to score headers. I guess on his injury time, which is the majority of his time, instead of learning how to position himself for headers, he pretends he is 5’10 and Argentinian. Because in game, instead of playing like he should, Carroll tries to beat his defender by either attempting to sprint past him, or trying some skill moves, but he just ends up losing the ball, and after enough times West Ham concedes and loses the game. And the worst part is that West Ham spent a club record fee of 20 million dollars on him.
The team is so desperate for a striking option; rumors have tied the club with free agent Emanuel Adebayor. When questioned about his poor form last season Adebayor accused his mother of putting a voodoo curse on him. That is all that needs to be said of Adebayor (I don’t want to upset his mother).
As of now West Ham only has one goal, avoid relegation. West Ham will play in the Olympic Stadium next season, meaning that the club will be making quite a bit more cash than they are now. But, if West Ham gets relegated, and are unable to fill the 70,000 seats at the stadium, then they will lose lots of money and end up in League 2 like Portsmouth. But right now West Ham currently sit in eighth with 22 points, and are out of the relegation zone by twelve points. At the end of the season, if a club finishes with more than 35 points, they should be able to avoid relegation. West Ham should be able to avoid relegation, but there’s always a chance.
West Ham is in a horrible place right now, and there seems to be no escape. But thank God we’re not Newcastle.
