Cottee was a diamond all right, but Linekar was probably the last world class striker we had - 30-40 goals a season type.
Lineker agreed was world-class, such a shame we only had him one season.
At the time I always thought Cottee wasn't that good,he used to miss a lot of chances even though he used to score quite regularly. I think my expectations may have been to high after we made him The most expensive ever British transfer and I was only a kid and I thought that meant he was proper boss, then he scored a hatrick on his debut and confirmed my thoughts or at least I thought he did but then he wasn't that boss and I was a bit disappointing by him. looking back he was a decent goalscorer.
Aye, I'm on a one-man mission to champion Cottee's worth to us. From the strikers who stayed with us a while (not incl. Lineker) he scored at a better rate than any striker of the last 45 years, you have to go back to Bob Latchford to find a better ratio.
Seems no one realises this
But as you say, Nev, I think the reasons are:
- he joined us in '88 when we were Champions the season before
- he joined us for a record fee
- he was a self-confessed Hammers fan
- he was a poacher, rather than a backs-to-the-wall grinder like Sharpy
- his 6 years with us resulted in no trophies (coming after the 83-87 period where we won 4 trophies)
But history (and my constant posting about him) will vindicate Tony Cottee's status as one of our best ever strikers.
I'd love a Cottee-like poacher playing for us again, regularly tapping in 15 goals-a-season, without any major losses of form from one season to the next. As Alan Ball says, we had Yak, AJ & Jela look like they might do it, but they couldn't maintain that form over several seasons. Only the best can do that.
