Enner Valencia- A risk worth taking?

Article by e-West Ham's Brandon Freeman

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Enner Valencia’s arrival at West Ham takes the clubs spending in the transfer window to £24million, and with no sign of stopping, the Ecuadorian’s arrival could soon be followed by more marquee signings at Upton Park. Although the deal should be considered a coup for West Ham given the huge interest in Valencia from London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham, the forward’s arrival isn’t without an element of risk.

Firstly, the transfer fee is reported to be close to the £15million West Ham paid Liverpool last season for Andy Carroll, whose West Ham career has thus far been blighted with injury and has yet to hit the heights the substantial transfer fee suggests it should. Far higher than originally thought, £15million is a large amount of the clubs budget to spend on a player who has no Premier League experience and was signed on the back of a successful season in Mexico, a league much less competitive than the Barclays Premier League. However, Valencia has shown good pedigree scoring 18 goals in 23 games for Pachuca in Mexico, and following up his domestic form by scoring all three of his countries goals at the World Cup, including an impressive brace against Honduras. Therefore, he may be the key to solving Big Sam’s lack of firepower, and could be instrumental in improving our poor attacking force last season which yielded just 40 goals in 38 games.

Another worry brought about by Valencia’s arrival is the fact that Sam Allardyce is unlikely to play two strikers upfront meaning Valencia may be limited to being an impact player from the bench, as Big Sam will surely prefer to have record signing Andy Carroll leading the line, especially given his impressive link-up play with captain Kevin Nolan. And although Valencia will need time to adapt to the Premier League, surely he will need regular football to show the qualities he has and begin to pay off his large transfer fee in order to avoid becoming a flop. Despite the worries I have about how Big Sam will incorporate Valencia, Stewart Downing’s praise of the deal hasn’t gone unnoticed, with Downing referring to the player as a “big boost for the club” whilst also emphasising the fact that the arrival of Enner Valencia will provide competition for places whilst taking some of the goal scoring pressure off of Andy Carroll.

The clubs less than impressive record of signing strikers under Sam Allardyce also means that this deal represents a big risk. Malian striker Mobido Maiga arrived at Upton Park in July 2012 from Ligue 1 side Sochaux for a fee in the region of £5million. But despite the fee being significantly less than Valencia, Maiga arrived with an impressive record of 24 goals in 42 games for Sochaux, in a league arguably more competitive than in Mexico. But Maiga has so far made little impact at the club and looks to be on his way out of West Ham having been left out of the squad for the pre-season training camp in Evian. Another striker who is instantly forgettable is Mladen Petric, who arrived at West Ham on a free-transfer in September 2013 but was released in December of the same year due to injury, having made just 3 appearances. Nevertheless, despite the fact that West Ham have struggled to find a striker who can avoid injury and score regularly for the club; given his impressive performances on the worlds biggest stage, we must remain optimistic that Enner Valencia is the striker Upton Park have been missing, and either alongside or in place of Andy Carroll, will light up the Boleyn Ground in our penultimate season there. Furthermore, at the age of just 24 it is clear that Enner Valencia has his best years ahead of him, and by signing a five-year deal, hopefully they will be in a West Ham shirt.

Do you believe Enner Valencia is a risk worth taking, or will West Ham fall victim to the cruel mistress that is the transfer window? Leave your comments below and follow @e_westham for the latest news and views, all things West Ham.

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