As the Premier League season nears its end we begin to arrive at the player awards period. With the Hammer of the Year award due to be presented on the 6th May it’s time to assess who could be the recipient this year. Fortunately, unlike previous years, the list of possible candidates is significantly longer then recent times with six players all having a valid claim to winning. Here I will assess each of them in turn.
Nobody can doubt that our summer player recruitment was, by and large, a huge success. To reflect this three of the candidates for Hammer of the Year arrived at our club in this window. The first in question is our powerhouse midfielder (sometimes centre back) Cheikhou Kouyaté. The Senegalese international has been a hugely positive addition to the West Ham squad and has provided a great level of physicality to our midfield. When someone with his physique and drive lines up in midfield it makes opposition players wary.
He had a particularly impressive February, scoring against Tottenham and Manchester United, and has also proved himself an adequate backup at centre half, especially against Sunderland in tandem with James Collins. Personally I prefer to see him in the centre of the park where he can have a bigger influence on the game. Positive things were said about him in preseason and these voices were proved correct. As Dean Ammi put it for Read West Ham, he is very much King Kouyaté.
The second newcomer on the list has arguably proved himself to be one of the bargains of the year. Diafra Sakho has been nothing short of a revelation this year and has provided what the side needed most of all after last year; goals. His late strike against Sunderland now means he has 12 in all competitions, a strike rate that we haven’t had from a forward for a while now. He has seamlessly stepped up from the French second division and, considering he was our back up option to Connor Wickham, boy are the fans glad that we were priced out of a move for the Sunderland man.
The third summer recruit to be mentioned already has the backing of Sam Allardyce, Tony Cottee and Ian ‘Moose’ Abrahams. Aaron Cresswell has been magnificent at left back and has made stepping up from the championship look easy. He’s marauded up and down the left flank with bundles of energy and has shown all the best attributes of a modern fullback. His four assists, one goal and his general crossing ability has been hugely advantageous but what he also has in his favour is his consistency. Very rarely has he had a bad game.
If the left back competition for England weren’t so fierce he would most definitely have been touted for an international call up. At present he is behind Leighton Baines, Luke Shaw, Kieran Gibbs, Ryan Bertrand and, for some unknown reason, Danny Rose in the pecking order but if he carries on making the progression he has this season then who knows what the future may hold for the Liverpudlian.
Of course lets not forget the players that were already at the club who have enjoyed great seasons. The first in question epitomises the term flop turned revelation; Stewart Downing. The winger, who had endured a difficult few seasons since leaving Aston Villa, has started to hit the high notes again by not playing on the wing. As daft as it seemed at first Downing has thrived in a central position and quickly became one of the league’s most creative players.
He was rewarded with an England call up for the games against Slovenia and Scotland and started against the Tartan Army, though Roy Hodgson cleverly thought to play him back out on the wing and he wasn’t much of a threat. If Downing can keep putting in strong and consistent performances in the attacking midfield position then there is every chance he could secure a place for himself in future international squads, and benefit West Ham in the process.
The second member of the old guard is a man who has won the award twice, and been runner up once. Mark Noble recently signed a new long-term contract to solidify his status as our current ‘Mr West Ham’ having been at the club for his entire career. Seeing the recent England squad announcement I can’t have been the only one who wondered what an earth Noble had to do to warrant a call up from Hodgson. Central midfield isn’t somewhere England are blessed with options at the moment and you would have thought that Noble had done more than enough to warrant his spot, particularly ahead of the likes of Fabian Delph, Jack Colback and Ryan Mason.
Even with the upcoming friendly with Italy on the horizon and several players dropping out with injury there is still no call up. For those who watch West Ham regularly we all see how important Noble is to our team. He tackles, runs and is one of our best chance creators in the team and has been doing it for a long while now. This year Noble marked a decade in the West Ham first team and broke West Ham’s all time Premier League appearance record. Could he notch a hat-trick of Hammer of the Year successes too?
The final Hammer of the Year candidate has gone somewhat under the radar this year and that is James Tomkins. The centre back has arguably been our best central defender this season and could also be in line for an England call up in the near future with this position arguably the weakest area for the national team. In whoscored.com’s team of the season so far, based on the stats of the best performing players in each position there are four Chelsea players, two Manchester City players, two Arsenal players, one Manchester united player and one Sunderland player (Pantilimon for those desperately figuring out who). There is also space for one West Ham player in Tomkins.
In a team that includes Diego Costa, Fabregas, Cazorla and Hazard, Tomkins is considered joint best performing centre back in the division along with Phil Jones. Regardless of your opinion on stats the Basildon man must be doing something right. He has grown considerably as a player since Allardyce took over and will hopefully get better and better. Another player who has signed a long-term contract we all look forward to seeing James Tomkins aiding the club further.
All the players have had great seasons and have become vital components of the first team. It’s nice to have a good solid selection this year. Allardyce, Cottee and Abrahams have already stuck their necks out and said Cresswell for the award. I’m going to stick my neck out and say I think it should be Kouyaté. Who do you feel it should be? We’ll find out on May 6th.
