Early last week, West Ham confirmed the signing of Besiktas winger Gokhan Tore on a season-long loan, with a view to a permanent move.
The 24-year-old Turkish international will be reunited with Hammers boss Slaven Bilic in east London, having played for him in Turkey, and admitted the lure of working with the Croatian was impossible to resist:
“I am very happy to be at West Ham. I watched many games that they played last season and saw how passionate the fans are. That made me want to come here and I am looking forward to playing in front of them. Slaven was also a big factor in me coming here and he is a great manager. He is the main man and knows me very well. I could not have said no to him. He is the best manager I have worked under and he is like a father to the players. You feel like you are family.”
The History
Born in Cologne, Germany, Tore started his youth career at SV Adler Dellbruck, before moving to Bayer Leverkusen as an 11-year-old. Tore spent six years with Bayer, before being spotted by Chelsea’s Sporting Director Frank Arnesen.
He moved to Stamford Bridge in 2009, but only featured for the reserves, playing an important role in the squad that won the Premier Reserve League in 2010/11.
Tore returned to Germany in the summer of 2011, joining Hamburg. He made 22 league appearances during the 2011/12 campaign, registering six assists, but failed to get on the scoresheet.
A move to Russian side Rubin Kazan in 2012 saw Tore’s career stall briefly, making only five league appearances during 2012/13, before joining Besiktas on a season-long loan in June 2013. The wide man took his chance to impress, scoring four goals and providing seven assists in 30 league matches, and secured a permanent move to the Turkish club in August 2014 for a fee believed to be around €4.5 million.
Over the last two seasons, Tore made 52 league appearances, scoring eight goals and registering 12 assists, and helped the club win the league title for the first time since 2009 last season.
Having represented Turkey at every youth level from Under 15 upwards, Tore made his senior debut against Estonia in August 2011. Despite having made 26 appearances for the national team, Tore has yet to score, although he has registered five assists.
The Prospects
While Tore is comfortable operating on either flank, he’s played the majority of his football on the right wing. He’ll offer competition to the likes of Michail Antonio, Manuel Lanzini and fellow new boy Sofiane Feghouli in the attacking midfield positions, with Dimitri Payet a sure starter for the Irons. The futures of both Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho both look in doubt though, with the latter increasingly linked with a switch to Sunderland.
With both Tore and Feghouli on board, though, the recent comments of West Ham co-chairman David Gold, whish suggest that Bilic considers Antonio one of the best right-backs in the Premier League, lends further weight to the idea that the former Forest man could be utilised in defence next season. Considering he bagged eight goals and seven assists last year, that would be a real source of frustration for Fantasy managers.
Tore, like Feghouli, has lacked an end product to his play – the Turkish international has never scored more than four times in a league season, whilst Feghouli has yet to better the six-goal mark. The pair averaged a shot every 52.2 and 57.2 minutes last term, with Lanzini quicker on 40 minutes.
In terms of creativity, Tore averaged a key pass every 39.5 minutes, which was better than both Feghouli (every 48.4 minutes) and Lanzini (every 58.2 minutes).
It’s expected that Tore will set us back around 7.0 in FPL, with both Lanzini and Feghouli likely to be handed similar price tags. All three will be considerably cheaper midfield options than Payet, but we may need to wait and see who nails down a regular starting berth during the opening weeks of the season before investing.
Lanzini will be unavailable for the opening two Gameweeks due to his involvement in the Olympic tournament though, so Tore and Feghouli should have plenty of opportunities to impress early on – particularly if Payet is eased back into action following his Euro 2016 exertions.
Although the Hammers’ opening fixtures (che, BOU, mci, WAT, wba) are mixed, Bilic’s side will have little fear for those trips to Chelsea and Man City, given they scored twice in each of the corresponding matches in 2015/16.
If Payet is fully fit and raring to go, it’s difficult to look beyond a player that averaged 5.7 points per game last term, though the Hammers’ free-flowing attack may ultimately provide us with value alternatives to the Frenchman.
Antonio can’t be ruled out altogether, though, and could potentially be utilised on the right of midfield if the Hammers go with a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 set-up. Indeed, Bilic utilised a wing-back system on a number of occasions in the second half of last season.
More of a creator than a scorer, it remains to be seen whether Tore can emerge as a viable option, though with the likes of Payet and Feghouli also capable of a killer pass, it may be that our attentions could turn to Carlos Bacca, if Bilic can acquire the AC Milan striker as his preferred option to Andy Carroll up front.
