Mauro Zarate has shown a lot of promise in the early stages of his career with West Ham. He scored a cracking volley on his debut against Crystal Palace and followed that up with an assist in his second league appearance.

However, the Argentinean has only made five appearances out of the 12 Premier League games thus far. Nothing particularly strange when the side has been performing so well without him in it.

But Mauro has even been missing from the bench most weeks, with no possible chance of making an appearance. That had even led to rumours he wanted out from his agent. Zarate quickly quashed these rumours on Twitter by showing his support to the team and also talking about his admiration for the job that Big Sam is doing.

Yet with a much weakened side against Everton he was still only able to make the bench, as Carlton Cole and Andy Carroll were preferred up top. Two physical players up top was always unlikely to work, and it only lasted just beyond the first half as Zarate was switched for Cole. The system changed and it wasn't long before it worked as Zarate netted his second of the campaign, just 5 minutes after the switch to be exact. His second goal in just over 300 minutes of Premier League football for The Hammers.

He's performing pretty well, but he's undoubtedly still behind Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia, Carroll and Cole as West Ham's attacking options. It's clear that he's not one of Allardyce's favourites, and that is most likely because he wasn't signed entirely by the manager.

It's no secret that West Ham's owners - in particular majority shareholder David Sullivan - have previously signed players off their own back. The one player that springs to mind as a prime example is Wellington Paulista. Now if you're not a West Ham fan it's unlikely that you've ever even heard of him. The signing in January 2013 seemed a particularly bizarre one initially, and was even more so by the time he left. The Brazilian signed on a 6-month loan deal from Cruzeiro with an option of a further three years.

That extension was always unlikely. Paulista has a decent scoring record at many clubs around Brazil, and that was an obviously exciting gamble for David Sullivan, but a gamble that Big Sam wasn't willing to make. However, after making the Hammers bench just twice, he left without a single senior team appearance. I suppose competing against Marouane Chamakh was too much for some.

Zarate had a decent record at plenty of clubs and had plied his trade in the Premier League with Birmingham, and the Serie A with Lazio and Inter, before joining West Ham - a little more experience! There is a case to be made in fairness to Paulista, that he perhaps joined at the wrong time to ever get a chance. The Hammers were playing long-ball for the majority of the matches, and players like Cole and Chamakh were picked for their physical presence. It's fair to say that Zarate is not dissimilar to Paulista in terms of size and style, but West Ham's style has certainly changed since the Brazilian's departure.

Zarate has shown plenty of promise and has two goals to his name in limited time, but it seems that when West Ham's squad is back to full strength he won't be able to force a place on the bench again. Of course Diafra Sakho & Enner Valencia have earned their positions in the squad and deserve their places back when they return, but whilst there is a space in the squad, Zarate deserves his chance to shime.

After all, he's not necessarily competing for a position against the strikers, but against Kevin Nolan - a far easier proposition.

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