Horrible Histories: A summery of West Ham Striker signings.

The signing of highly touted Italian Gianluca Scamacca marks the 51st time that the Hammers have signed a striker since 2010 and possibly a change in attacking fortunes. Many of the 51 have been complete trainwrecks, and here are some of the low lights.

Just to put into context how bad West Ham’s scouting of strikers has been, twenty of the fifty that they have signed since 2010 had never scored a goal. Yes, 40% of all the hammers’ strikers never hit the back of the net.

Hence, there have been some magnificently bad transfers along the way. Here are the top 5.

5. Mladen Petric

To be frank, the only reason this isn’t much higher up the list is that it was a free transfer.

Along with many others on this list, the Croatian international had a relatively good career before attempting to ply his trade at Upton Park. Scoring 51 times in 128 appearances in the Bundesliga for both Dortmund and Hamburg, his time in the Premier League did not follow suit.

Having been released from Fulham after scoring five in twenty-three appearances, West Ham picked him up on a free. After all, he seemed to have a decent upside, and there were minimal costs to signing him.

As it turned out, he probably wasn’t worth the cost of washing his match shirts. Pertic played four times in total, always off the bench, and never scored, resulting in his release after five months at West Ham.

You would think transfers cannot get much worse than this, but do not worry, they can.

4. Benni McCarthy

Signed for £2.4 million from Blackburn Rovers in 2010, Benni McCarthy was relatively highly-rated coming to Upton Park. He had won a Champions League medal with Porto, even bagging a brace against Manchester United. He had also won the golden boot in the Portuguese top flight and the Premier League. He did not repeat this at West Ham.

Whilst making his Premier League debut for the Hammers against Burnley, McCarthy injured his knee, keeping him sidelined for six weeks. The South African failed to get a run of games after his injury. By February 2011, he had been left out of the Premier League squad. In April 2011, West Ham had to offer him £1 million to buy him out of his contract.

In the end, Benni McCarthy never scored a goal, started only three games for West Ham and made a total of only 11 appearances.

Now onto the podium places.

3. Pablo Barrera

Signing Barrera for £4 million and giving him a four-year contract showed the Mexican international that the Hammers had faith in the idea that he would perform. But unfortunately, he did not repay this faith.

He only played fifteen times in total for the Hammers, starting in five of them. He didn’t register a goal or assist during these fifteen appearances. The number of appearances means this deal was worse than the previous two. Barrera had five times more opportunities to score or assist than McCarthy and eleven more than Petric, and he still couldn’t manage it.

In fact, the Mexican actually played more games on away on loan than he ever did for West Ham.

The extended amount of subpar play that Pablo Barrera subjected fans to at the Boleyn Ground, and the relatively expensive fee at the time, make him one of the worst strikers to play for West Ham in recent memory.

A bronze medal for the Mexican.

2. Simone Zaza

Simone Zaza was highly touted when he signed for West Ham on loan from Juventus for five million Euros. He had impressed at Sassuolo, who bought him from Juve with a buy-back clause included in his contract (activated in 2015). However, the Italian failed to reach the same heights on his return to Turin.

As a result, he was loaned to West Ham with the stipulation that if he played over a certain number of games in the English top flight, the Hammers would be obligated to buy him for around 2o million Euros.

Zaza, however, never reached this threshold, and for a good reason. He played eleven times for the Hammers, eight being in the Premier League, and never scored. You could make a case that he should be lower down this list, as West Ham never actually paid the transfer fee.

He is second, however, because of the inexplicably poor timing of the transfer. Zaza had only started five for Juve in 2015-16 and had a very poor Euros culminating in a hilariously bad missed penalty that more than likely crushed his confidence. Hence, on his arrival in the English capital, the Italian was at the lowest ebb of his career so far, and it only went downhill from there.

And now for the winner.

1. Jordan Hugill

I will give good money to anyone outside Preston and some West Ham Ultras who can honestly say they know who Jordan Hugill is. He performed very effectively in the Championship, scoring 13 goals in 47 games in the 2016-17 season, meaning he was Preston North-Ends top scorer.

This is when the Hammers swooped in and signed him for £10 million. That fee makes Hugill the most expensive player on this list, and on top of that, he only played a part in three competitive games. In fact, in his time at West Ham, Jordan Hugill only managed to amass 25 minutes of on-field time. That means West Ham paid Preston North-End £400,000 a minute for his services.

Of course, like the rest of the players on this list, he never scored a goal, and the experience in east London seems to have knocked his confidence as he has never reached the form he was in at Preston.

A little bit on Scamacca

Reading this article, you may feel that Gianluca Scamacca is doomed to fail at the London Stadium. However, this is not the case.

This is not the same West Ham United for which these strikers signed. Rather than looking to avoid the drop this season, the Hammers have a realistic chance of qualifying for Europe once again. As well as this, Scamacca is a different class of player than all the strikers on this list.

He was outstanding in Seria A last year and was linked with the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal, alongside the Hammers. This shows that despite their chequered past, the future looks bright for the strike force in East London.

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