David Moyes gets the violins out as he admits West Ham star Michail Antonio is unhappy but we’re tired of the same old song.
No matter where you stand on David Moyes, it’s hard to defend his inability to identify and sign a new striker at West Ham.
He signed Jordan Hugill for £9m in his first spell. And he threw the towel in on Sebastien Haller and Gianluca Scamacca in his second spell.
The Scot has ended up turning inconsistent wingers Marko Arnautovic and Michail Antonio into decent strikers.
Now he’s trying to do the same with West Ham’s most consistent player Jarrod Bowen.
Because Antonio, 34 in March, looks – as many Hammers fans have been saying for some time – to have had his day as a Premier League forward.
He was dropped for the memorable cup win over Arsenal. And the general consensus of opinion after that memorable 3-1 win was that Moyes had found the answer to life beyond battering ram Antonio.
But despite then warning Antonio he was all but finished as West Ham’s first choice striker, Moyes reinstated the misfiring forward for the defeat to Brentford last weekend. And it backfired spectacularly.
His ridiculous miss from a yard out is widely seen as the moment that cost West Ham the game at 2-1 up before going on to lose 3-2.
Now Moyes gets the violins out as he admits West Ham star Antonio is unhappy but we’re tired of the same old song.
“Micky has got competition, he has always had that,” Moyes said in his presser ahead of the Forest clash.
Tired of the same old song – do something about it
“We need Mick to score goals. He started the season really well but we need him to score. If you’re going to be a No9 you need those goals.
“All players who don’t get in the team can look like (they are unhappy) but you hope they fight, compete for their position, get their form back, get into goalscoring form.
“That’s what we want (from Antonio). He has been part of a team and has a been a hugely important member.”
Everyone can see Moyes’ failure to sign a replacement for Scamacca was a big mistake in the summer.
And West Ham fans are sick of watching the club either fail or refuse to do something about the striker situation.
You can’t compete for the European spots in the Premier League without a bona fide top level forward.
Whether one will be available in January or not remains to be seen.
But hopefully Tim Steidten can unearth a gem from somewhere.
