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Top 5 players West Ham must upgrade for Champions League football

By Rucker Haringey

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 19: Andy Carroll (2nd L) of West Ham United celebrates scoring his team's second goal with his team mates during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on March 19, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 19: Andy Carroll (2nd L) of West Ham United celebrates scoring his team's second goal with his team mates during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on March 19, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 22: Diafra Sakho of West Ham United is challenged by Danny Rose (L) and Eric Dier of Tottenham Hotspur during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at White Hart Lane on November 22, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 22: Diafra Sakho of West Ham United is challenged by Danny Rose (L) and Eric Dier of Tottenham Hotspur during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at White Hart Lane on November 22, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /

1. Diafra Sakho

I’m betting that most of you expected to see Andy Carroll’s name here and not Diafra Sakho. I actually think Carroll is best utilized in his current role with the Hammers. Namely, I think he is a good plan B to bring off the bench. What West Ham need to upgrade is their first-choice striker.

For me, Sakho is just an average Premier League striker. That would be perfectly fine if West Ham were sitting somewhere around 10th in the Premier League, but it’s not acceptable for a team that’s pushing for Champions League qualification. Four goals in 15 league appearances is not good enough for the team’s starting number nine considering the quality of attacking talent that surrounds him.

The good news for West Ham fans is that the club clearly realizes it needs to purchase a new, starting centre-forward. The club has been linked with a variety of big-name targets such as Christian Benteke and Michy Batshuayi and I fully expect them spend big on the position in the summer. Quite a few of their potential targets would be solid bets to significantly outperform Sakho.

If the Senegalese striker would be willing to accept a lesser role, I wouldn’t be opposed to West Ham hanging on to him, but I think that’s unlikely. They’ll purchase a new starting centre-forward and have Carroll as the primary back-up which won’t leave a ton of room for Sakho. They should just sell him for what would still be a reasonably large transfer fee.

Related Story: Could West Ham purchase Tottenham's Nacer Chadli?

The bottom line is that the striker position is the biggest question mark for West Ham moving forward and it must be addressed with significant investment. The Hammers must upgrade Diafra Sakho’s position this summer.

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