West Ham questioned over Fullkrug decision – ‘Not sure I’d do that’
Lars Sivertsen has questioned West Ham United’s decision to sign Niclas Fullkrug in the summer given his age and history of injuries.
West Ham have endured a rollercoaster of a season under Julen Loeptegui with the Irons just six points behind the top five despite frustrating on a weekly basis.
Their biggest concern has been in the goalscoring department with Fullkrug having struggled with injuries since arriving from Borussia Dortmund in a £27.5million deal with Norwegian broadcaster and writer Sivertsen – who has contributed to the likes of TV 2, talkSPORT, and the Guardian – questioning why the move was sanctioned.
Speaking on talkSPORT (28 December, 11:40 am), the sports broadcaster said: “Like a lot of the rest of West Ham’s season, it seems to depend on if they can get Niclas Fullkrug going up front, the German striker they played quite a lot of money for this summer.
“Now, paying out a lot of money for a 31-year-old striker who has a history of knee injuries, not sure I’d do that, I think Dortmund were quite happy.
“But he is a handful when he’s upfront and if they can get him integrated into the team, there’s Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus, some really good players there and they don’t seem to have quit on the manager entirely.”
West Ham could be made to rue Niclas Fullkrug signing
Paying a significant amount of money for a 31-year-old is a big gamble in itself, let alone for someone of that age with a daunting injury record.
It was very much an all-or-nothing signing and unfortunately for the Irons, it is certainly edging closer to the latter with his lack of contributions so far.
Given the lack of return investment you’d expect to get from someone at that age, West Ham signed him to have an immediate impact and inject quality into the attacking lineup but he simply hasn’t lived up to the expectations that were set of him, albeit he did miss a big chunk of time through injury.
January will provide an opportunity to right their wrongs in the striking department and the signing of a younger striker is an absolute necessity if the club are to progress.
West Ham have become not only predictable in attack, but also far too reliant on Jarrod Bowen to pull them up from the dirt in closely contested encounters and it simply isn’t sustainable.
In other West Ham news, an exit could be on the cards for one Irons star.
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