David Sullivan hosted a Q&A session via his son’s Twitter account on Thursday. Around halfway through he announced that there would be an update on Andy Carroll, who hadn’t travelled with the squad to New Zealand on the current tour.
After Carroll’s absence from a large chunk of last season, West Ham fans were unlikely to expect positive news from this imminent update. After a selection of questions had been answered the Carroll update duly followed. It read:
VERY BAD NEWS REGARDING AC, TORN LIGAMENTS IN ANKLE… OPERATION TOMORROW WITH TOP SURGEON IN USA… WILL BE PLAYING IN 4 MONTHS
So, the fears of a similar start to the approaching season as the last were heightened. Another problem with his foot. Oh no – it’s his other one.
Is it a problem, really? Well statistically – yes.
West Ham have won 35.3% of their Premier League games with Carroll in the side and only 25% without. Of course the quality of the opponents needs to be taken into consideration.
The thing is, last season West Ham had to call on Carlton Cole, Modibo Maiga, or Marco Borriello. At least this season we have Mauro Zarate and (surely) Enner Valencia to rely on instead. David Sullivan also confirmed that West Ham fans should expect another striker, perhaps due to the length of Carroll’s injury. Perhaps a case for Carroll to not warrant a return to the squad when (if?!) fit if the others can do the trick.
West Ham may well be forced to cut their loses with Andy in the near future.
I fear that may be the case we simply don’t have the resources to fit around his occasional periods of fitness especially as you have to shape the team around him, it’s too disruptive. Trouble is we would lose half of what we paid for him so it’s a tough call. But now we as good As know we could have had Bony for half the cost and who is now likely worth twice what Carroll is and has contributed massively too, for Swansea it does seem if nothing else that Sullivan is a better judge of a player than BS. Hardly a shock mind.
The problem is no one will ever want Carroll, Newcastle may, but they now are in control what is her worth, hardly anything, but it gets his stupid salary someone agreed off the pay roll, they need to shift him, though if Sam goes quickly perhaps he will take him with Nolan.
This has been a sad chapter in our history, but Sam was never anything for me but to get us promoted.
lazy stuff this he did travel NZ , and these reports have been circulating since Thursday will someone start writing something decent for once not just repeating other peoples stories
Fuck carroll off,Nolan and most importantly Allardyce,hes undermining the season before its begun,Sullivan seems to have had enough too
This guy never wanted to play for us in the first place.During the time we had him on loan there was only one team he was trying to impress and that was Liverpool hoping he could regain his place in the squad. This never materialised and so an offer was made by us and accepted but still he stalled for some time hoping another club would show interest. Lets just cut our losses and GET RID.
With latest injury who will take him now.he’d have to play at least 10-15 games without further problems, & score a few.before anybody’d be interested.
I’ve been saying WH should offload AC for about a year now.He’s just too injury prone. I don’t know if his career will ever get going, but one thing is for sure in that he aint firing with WH, yeh can’t plan a season with a man who aint there. Great players don’t tend to get injured like AC does. Just look at all the knocks Messi took in Brazil, but he’s fine, and people like Billy Bonds who really worked at their fitness. Billy at one stage was ever present in the WH starting 11 for 2 years. No, I am thrilled that WH have signed 5 new singings, let’s move on from here. I’m afraid AC seems to be a case of “what might have been” but never will be. I agree with jaybs about leaving Nolan out & it wouldn’t really bother me if the same applied to Noble. WH are moving along independently of Sam with signings & along with Sheringham they have Sam in check, no let Sam stay & work in with others for a change instead of dominating them
We could never sell him anyway – firstly no one will pay much even if they wanted him due to his injury history – secondly he wont get the wages hes on anywhere else – effectively west ham would have to pay him off to leave – however i disagree that he doesnt want to play for west ham, i think now more than ever he has to prove himself as a worthy professional ready to do the hard yards to get his career back on track, west ham can benefit greatly from that – our first season back we were a better team when he was in it, the win ratio speaks volumes about that and as a young player he still has a great deal to offer the game, and that means West Ham while we still have him – people slate the guy but there isnt one CD in the PL that wouldnt tell you Caroll is a nightmare to play against, hes had a bad run of injuries that have hampered his progress but i honestly believe he will come good and we will benefit when he does – however until he does Nolan needs to be benched as without Caroll he is obsolete, we also need to rid ourselves of Maiga and Vaz Te and use the funds towards buying a better quality option. COYI.