West Ham United’s record signing Andre Ayew has been the subject of a lot of criticism in his debut season at the club.
West Ham United’s Andre Ayew reacts
The former Swansea City striker joined the Hammers in the summer for £20.5 million off the back of a strong debut Premier League season with the Welsh club where he bagged 12 goals.
A serious thigh injury on his Hammers debut at Chelsea saw him ruled out for four months and on his return to went to the African Nations as captain of Ghana.
Ayew has struggled for form and consistency in the claret and blue and was guilty of one of the misses of the season in the 4-0 defeat to Liverpool recently.
Given his eyebrow raising fee, the Black Stars skipper has been the subject of a lot of fans’ frustration.
But he has slowly started finding his feet as the campaign drew to a close and it was his assist and goal which gave West Ham an impressive 2-1 win away at Burnley in the season finale last time out.
Ayew has been linked with a return to his former club Marseille this week, as reported by The Sun.
But Bilic has suggested he wants to keep him by defending Ayew in an interview with the club’s official website, insisting he brings a unique quality to West Ham.
West Ham United’s Andre Ayew celebrates scoring the winner at Burnley
“The second goal may have benefitted from a touch of luck, but the whole action was for me brilliant,” Bilic told whufc.com when reflecting on Ayew’s headed tap-in winner at Turf Moor.
“How it finished, OK, it was a bit lucky, but we came with a lot of players there [in the box] and that’s why that rebound fell to Ayew, like it did for Lanzini’s goal against Spurs. You have more chances that the ball will drop to your player when you have five in the box.
“Andre Ayew is great at being in the right place at the right time… we deserved it.”
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic
West Ham will be looking to add more firepower to the starting XI for next season with strikers Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho spending more time on the treatment table than the pitch.
That means more competition for Ayew, although he can also operate as a winger or attacking midfielder.
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