Meet the former West Ham ace who could save Bournemouth’s season
Published:
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe is set to turn to Ricardo Vaz Te to beef up his ailing Cherries attack, according to reports.
The Dean Court club fared relatively well in the opening weeks of their debut Premier League campaign but injuries to the likes of Callum Wilson, Max Gradel and Christian Atsu have left the Seasiders a little light up front.
Recent signing Glenn Murray aside, Howe has only Joshua King and Yann Kermorgant, both relatively inexperienced at top flight level, to call upon.
Talk of a January swoop for Jermain Defoe refuses to die down but in the meantime Howe looks set to add free agent Vaz Te to his squad.
The former Portugal U21 star is without a club after calling time on his recent spell in Turkey with Akhisar Belediyespor but has shown glimpses of his quality in the Premier League before and is currently training with the Boscombe-based outfit..
The now 29-year-old started his senior career at Bolton Wanderers, where his return of six goals in 32 games in 2005-06 marked him out as one to watch.
A loan spell at Hull City and his subsequent return to the Reebok Stadium failed to see him build on that promise, however, and he soon found himself at Greek side Panionios.
His stay in the Super League lasted just eight games though and after one goal he was shipped off to Hibernian where he didn’t fare much better.
After just 10 games and one goal Vaz Te travelled back south of the border and found his feet again at Barnsley.
A solid 2011-12 campaign at Turf Moor saw the striker net 12 goals in 24 games, earning him a move to West Ham where 12 strikes in 18 appearances helped win promotion back to the Premier League for the Irons.
From there the chances dried up, but Vaz Te still managed to add seven goals to his Hammers tally despite just 43 stop-start appearances over the following three years.
Howe, though seems to think the forward can still cut it in the top flight and if he can match his best ever top flight haul of six goals the Cherries manager could be proved right.
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