FIVE reasons West Ham should sell this star in January
So the rumours of Newcastle’s interest in Andy Carroll appear to have cooled some what since they surfaced around two weeks ago.
It’s difficult to see why a move back to Newcastle wouldn’t work for all three parties, apart from how much it would cost the Magpies to take him off our hands.
Yes, we’re sick of him constantly getting injured and yes, the performances and change of style this season suggest his future at the club is now limited to the point where he could become nothing more than an impact player off the bench.
So the chance to sell, I suspect, would be a fairly attractive proposition for the owners. But he’d still cost a small fortune give the amount we paid for him and the fact he’s still got about 3/4 years on his big fat, mega money contract.
It’d be sad to see him go knowing that, had he stayed fit, we could’ve had one hell of a striker on our hands. But sometimes things just aren’t meant to be.
So here a SIX reasons why we should look into selling Andy Carroll in January…
Click on the big man to reveal
Change of style
After last season’s farcical approach to football tactics, Allardyce has no embraced the demands placed upon him by the owners.
And that inevitably has a huge impact on the inured Andy Carroll who, a we all know, is most effective when played a target man.
With Diafra Sakho banging the goals in and Enner Valencia looking increasingly impressive alongside him up top, everyone’s struggling to work out where Carroll will fit in once he’s finally fit.
Recoup as much as money possible
Given we paid around £15/20million for him just over a year ago, there’s more of a chance of recouping around £10million of that if we sell him now.
We could even break even on him should the owners work their business magic and Newcastle are as desperate then as they should be now.
The quicker we sell, the more money we’ll get for him to reinvest elsewhere in the squad. Like the defence.
Too injury prone
As if it even needs explaining. The fact we’ve had him for just over two seasons now and he’s spent around four lengthy spells on the sidelines with an injury says a lot.
Not this isn’t particularly his fault, which I’m sure a lot of fans actually believe, but it’s just no secret that he struggles to keep himself injury free for whatever reason.
His injury last season, which at one point looked to have ended his career, was a freak and rare injury, but that doesn’t particulate do us any favours.
See below his current record for us so far. Unfortunately that’s not good enough for someone who was our record top scorer and highest ever earner…
| Season | League Apps | League Goals | Cup Apps | Cup Goals | Yellow Cards | Reds Cards | Total Apps | Total Goals | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012/2013* | 22 (2) | 7 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 24 | 7 | ||||
| 2013/2014 | 12 (3) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 2 | ||||
| 2014/2015 | 12 (2) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 5 | ||||
| 2015/2016 | 13 (14) | 9 | 3 (2) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 32 | 9 | ||||
| 2016/2017 | 15 (3) | 7 | 3 (1) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 22 | 7 | ||||
| 2017/2018 | 7 (9) | 3 | 1 (1) | 0 | 6 | 1 | 18 | 3 | ||||
| 2018/2019 | 3 (9) | 0 | 1 (1) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 1 | ||||
| Total: | 84 (42) | 33 | 11 (5) | 1 | 21 | 2 | 142 | 34 |
*Was on loan
Nolan partnership unlikely
Kevin Nolan appears to have also missed out on the team turning a corner this season.
His shoulder injury has seen the team flourish without him and, just like Carroll, it’s difficult to find a way of fitting the skipper back in to the starting XI without having to drop an inform player unfairly.
Carroll and Nolan have a notorious partnership, which we enjoyed during Carroll’s loan season at the club. But I fear we’ve seen the last of that at West Ham, with both players’ fitness ultimately letting them down.
No more over reliance
His return from injury last season gave us a huge boost and we desperately needed him to help dig us out of what was dangerously looking like another relegation battle.
So his red card against Swansea was a huge blow and had us wondering how we’d cope without him again. It turned out that we wouldn’t miss him as much as we thought, but it was frustrating knowing that we relied so much on one player.
This season, however, our strength in depth is huge. Should one of our strikers get injured or suspended then we’ve got Mauro Zarate to come in and cover adequately. There’s quality in numbers, which we didn’t have last season.
That begs the question. Do we really need him anymore? I’d love it if he was to come back from injury, stays fit and Allardyce finds him a worthwhile and effective place in the side. But the reality is that’s probably not going to happen.