Former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor has criticised West Ham for the signing of Germany striker Niclas Füllkrug last summer. 

Niclas Füllkrug arrived in East London last summer to mixed responses, there wasn’t much doubt about his goalscoring record, but to pay close to £30m for a player of his age with his injury record was puzzling, and we found that out the hard way.

Germany’s number nine scored three goals in 20 appearances for the Hammers as he missed 18 matches due to achillies and hamstring injuries. He has already picked up another injury this season for Germany during the International break, he missed last nights 2-0 defeat to Slovakia with muscular problems.

He has started all three Premier League games this season, however, he has failed to continue on the promise he showed in pre-season and is already likely to be dropped for Callum Wilson. Gabby Agbonlahor agrees and thinks its time to drop the 32-year-old.

“I don’t think it’s about how much you spend, it’s what you spend it on. They’ve signed Niclas Fullkrug for near enough £30 million; he runs like he’s got no hips. He can’t get around the pitch. Honestly, what a bad signing. Yes, he did well at the Euros, but he’s not a good enough player for me. That was a strange signing.”

It’s hard to disagree with the Aston Villa legend here, Füllkrug has been added to a long list of bad striker signings from West Ham. Lets hope this years summer signing Callum Wilson is more successful.

In pre-season it looked as though the club had exiting plans for Füllkrug after an injury-hit first campaign. Back in April, Potter said: “You can see what he brings to the team. He gives us a focal point. He gives us a chance to get second balls. He gives us a chance to attack quicker, a bit more vertically,” and with Bowen, Paqueta, Summerville and now Matheus Fernandes around him, with Diouf supplying the crosses he should thrive through the middle. But it just hasn’t worked out like that.

Agbonlahor didn’t stop there, he also called out the signing of Jean Clair-Todib0, “Other signings they’ve had, Todibo for £32m,” the former Villa star said. At the time, Todibo was an exciting signing, he had an excellent reputation in France, and we beat both Manchester United and Juventus in the race for his signature, but he just hasn’t been good enough at all.

Alan Brazil ended by saying, “Who is signing these people? This is what gets me with modern football. Who is buying them? What gives them the expertise to go and spend £30m,£40m, £50m at a time?”