On Saturday at the KC stadium with the score at 0-0 and with the Hull defence coping a little too comfortably with the threat of John Carew, Big Sam took it upon himself to throw Carlton Cole into the fray and the result was two assists that swung a tight affair in our favour.
I’ve never known a player to split opinion as much our Carlton…there are those who believe he is devoid of all footballing ability, whilst others decree that he has the talent but fails to display it on a consistent basis. I’ll admit it; I’m a card carrying member of the latter.
This season in this league there is no reason why Cole can’t be the most feared target man around. We all know Carlton is a bit hit and miss…with the moments of genius like the wonder-goal he scored against Spurs a couple of seasons ago, come the missed sitters of which there are too many to name. But whether you fancy him or not Cole has always produced goals, perhaps not as regular as we’d like but he does have his moments. Are moments enough? In this season’s Championship those moments should come around more often.
Throughout his Hammers career it would be wrong to describe Cole being as prolific, but he’s always had a knack of coming up with goals. Even this season he’s been out injured for the past 4/5 games but still has a tally of four to his name, 2 more than Carew and four more than Piquionne…of all our target-men Cole seems to me the best all-rounder; in that he has pace, power, mobility and an aerial threat unlike the others who only possess a modicum of these attributes.
Since the very day Coley made his debut against Charlton on the opening day of the 06/07 season and scored with his first touch. His time with us has been a series of peaks and troughs, there was even a period under Zola where he couldn’t stop scoring; forcing himself into the thoughts of Fabio Capello, there aren’t many strikers at this level with that kind of pedigree. And there isn’t a side in this league that wouldn’t have him on their books.
The enigma and unpredictability of Cole is perhaps his greatest asset, he’s literally capable just about anything…hopefully his flick on for a Baldock’s tap in at the weekend is start of something a bit special.
