West Ham Season Preview #13 - Diafra Sakho’s Last Chance

Last Season

As I covered in my summary of Diafra Sakho’s performance’s last season, he couldn’t stay on the pitch. He appeared in just four games and contributed a solitary goal during this time.

Summer 2016 was unstable for the striker, a £16 million transfer to West Bromwich Albion collapsed. Disappointing because there’s no way West Ham United would get anywhere close to that money for Sakho after the 2016/17 season.

In a season of lows, the lone highlight came with Sakho’s solitary goal of the 2016/17, heading in a Dimitri Payet cross in the 1-1 draw with Manchester United.

Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Current Team Placement

It’s not looking good for Diafra Sakho, as Andrew Jones recently outlined:

“You would think that after his various injury issues, constant rumors of him possibly leaving the club and arrival of Javier Hernandez last week that Diafra Sakho’s days at West Ham United are numbered.”

Throw in constant reports of rows with Slaven Bilic, and it would appear that Sakho’s time in East London is drawing to a close. However, quotes from David Sullivan suggest the contrary:

“I think you need a bit of luck with injuries and we’ve had no luck with injuries. At the moment Mr. Diafra Sakho is 100% good and that will make a huge difference in the season.”

Regardless of what the chairman thinks, Sakho is surplus to requirements. Javier Hernandez will look to lead the line, while Andy Carroll will be the second choice - which probably relegates Sakho to featuring in cup games.

Constant injuries to Sakho and Carroll spurred West Ham to bring in a durable striker, Hernandez.

Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images

Goals for the Season

Simply, Sakho needs to stay fit, recapture the form of his first season with West Ham, where the he scored 10 league goals in 23 games.

We’ve heard more about Sakho for his off-field antics, his attitude stinks. He’s been a disruptive influence in the dressing room for the past couple of seasons, I sincerely hope that this doesn’t continue.

These aren’t lofty targets. Play football and don’t upset people. However, knowing how Sakho has behaved in recent times, he is likely to miserably fail at both of these objectives.

Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images