Saturday 21 February 2015 09:19, UK
Sam Allardyce believes he could have gotten the best out of Emmanuel Adebayor had he been able to land the Tottenham striker in January.
West Ham came close to completing a loan move for the striker on the final day of the January transfer window only for Spurs to pull out of the deal at the last minute.
With Harry Kane in inspired form, Adebayor faces an uphill battle to break into the Spurs starting line-up and Allardyce says he would have relished the prospect of working with the former Arsenal and Manchester City man - despite his reputation for causing unrest.
When asked what the signing of Adebayor would have brought to West Ham, Allardyce simply replied: “Goals.
“If you see where he has gone and his initial impact at where he has been would be that he comes into a football club and scores goals on a regular basis.
If you see where he has gone and his initial impact at where he has been would be that he comes into a football club and scores goals on a regular basis.
"There is obviously one of those players that you have to look at him and as a manager and say 'how do I react with him and interact with him and on the basis of how well I interact is on the basis of how well he plays for us'.
"So you use your management skills in terms of looking at his personality, like you do with most players and talking about wanting the best out of him while you are here, and wanting him to enjoy your football and do what you do best - play and score goals.
"If you are in the transfer window and a quality player comes your way and you think he is a quality player, some people say 'do you need a player in that position?' - but the bottom line is that he is a quality player.
"If you can get him, for me you get him if you can afford him. That is what we tried to do. There was such a short time frame at that time it was not possible to be pulled off."
Allardyce’s frustrations at missing out on Adebayor have been heightened by the season-ending knee injury suffered by Hammers frontman Andy Carroll.
Allardyce conceded Adebayor would have been the perfect fit to step in with Carroll sidelined but has now called on the likes of Enner Valencia, Carlton Cole, Diafra Sakho and new arrival Nene to prove their worth.
"Any player with the ability that he has got is my kind of player," he added of Adebayor.
"Particularly with a relatively good goalscoring record. There can be the odd blip that happens with a player of his character but sometimes you deal with that as a manager. But it was not to be.
"We have players here that have got to perform from now to the end of the season. There is no let up.
"They can't take it easy and sit back on what they have done in the past and they have got to continue to strive for the future and hit the levels we have performed at for most of the season."
