£30m striker? We score from everywhere!

Only three teams scored more goals than West Ham’s 65 last season – Man City (71), Spuds (69) and champions Leicester City (68). We are next in line with 65 equalled only by Arsenal.

But here’s the interesting thing. We are regularly being told we need a 20-25 goal a season striker at enormous expense and thus far don’t appear to have had a lot of success in that area.

West Ham showed last season that their goals come from virtually everywhere and that has always been the sign of a good team.

We are not a one dimensional outfit heavily reliant on one or two players to score our goals like Harry Kane who got 26 or Leicester who relied on Jamie Vardy with 24.

At Upton Park our goals came from all over the place and here are the MAIN scorers over the season:

O Dimi Payet 12

O Andy Caroll 9

O Michail Antonio 9

O Mark Noble 7

O Manu Lanzini 6

O Cheik Kouyate 5

O Diafra Sakho 5

O Enner Valencia 4

How many more we would have scored had Payet not been out for three months and Antonio’s season had started a bit before November 29 is worth thinking about isn’t it?

If we can settle Mr Sakho down and demonstrate he doesn’t need to become a drama queen whenever he gets the hump we won’t be in bad shape.

I really admire the club’s ambition is wanting a big striker. That’s a given and I seriously hope it happens but I have to say it’s not going to be a major disaster if we don’t find him.

I can almost here the “eff off Southon” shouts as I write such are the expectation levels but if Andy Carroll can stay fit and yes that is a BIG IF; if we can settle Sak and we can move Enner Valencia on and bring in a decent replacement we won’t be so badly off.

Yes of course we need to go on improving and a top striker would be brilliant but I really don’t want us to sign someone who is way over priced simply in order to seen to be honouring a pledge.

We are a very good team these days and as David Gold tweeted yesterday: “It’s not about being tight…it’s about being right.”

We got it right last season and I totally trust – as I have written before – Slav to do so this time around.

COYI