West Ham must add Borriello to January ‘hits’ column to stay up
Published:No one can blame Sam Allardyce for dipping his toes into the January transfer market to find reinforcements, but since David Gold and David Sullivan bought the club, West Ham have signed far more January misses than hits in the centre-forward department.
The next time the east Londoners step out do battle in the Premier League they should be able to do so with two new Italian internationals in their squad.
According to reports, 28-year-old Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino and Roma striker Marco Borriello, 31, are in the process of completing loan deals to join the struggling Hammers.
The fact that West Ham are priced up as the 11/1 outsiders at Stamford Bridge when they return to league action, says a lot about the Irons’ troubles this season, as they currently sit in 18th position.
But taking a gamble by bringing in emergency cover in January is not a new theme at Upton Park and worryingly for their fans, it’s not proved overly successful during the Gold/Sullivan era thus far either.
From a list of strikers brought in half-way through the season since the ‘Davids’ took over the club, only Benny McCarthy (12 months) and current player Ricardo Vaz Te, have made it beyond the ensuing summer after signing.
Mido, Ilan, Demba Ba, Robbie Keane, Nicky Maynard, Marouane Chamakh and Wellington Paulista (who, I hear you cry), had all moved on no sooner than they arrived.
Ironically, the biggest scoring hit of the lot in Ba was there when the club were relegated at the end of the 2010/11 campaign.
Borriello has only scored once in 11 Roma appearances so far this season, but 12 in 28 on loan at Genoa during the previous campaign offers Hammers fans more hope.
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