A week on from achieving promotion back to the Premier League at Wembley, it is finally begin to sink in that we will once again be rubbing shoulders with huge clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal.
No longer will I be searching what the nearest train station is to Bristol City or going around the houses to collect my Cardiff City away ticket.
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From reports it seems Sam Allardyce has a decent enough budget to dip into this summer to ensure that West Ham do not just survive in the Premier League but also establish themselves back where they belong. With along term plan in place, the owners are really putting the club first and I can only imagine the first position they will be looking to strengthen in will be up front.
After the final last week, Carlton Cole said on twitter that he took a major pay cut to continue to play for West Ham in the Championship.Fair play, he only played for around 14k a week.
He also said that he was basically driven to Stoke last summer as Sam Allardyce and the owners tried to sell him on, but understandably Cole didn’t fancy a move to the Potteries. It was no secret that Allardyce didn’treally fancy him in pre-season and the likes of John Carew were added to the squad after first choice signings didn’t join the club and players such as Freddie Piquionne failed to make an impact.
For the first few months of the season, West Ham blew hot and cold, but were still up there at the top of the league. The defence were superb, James Tomkins, Abdoulaye Faye, George McCartney and Joey O’Brien were solid and Green was as perusual on top form. The only problem was scoring goals.
The Upton Park crowd didn’t take to new skipper Kevin Nolan and he found it tough to do anything right before Christmas, and it was the penalties of Mark Noble that seemed to be saving our bacon week after week.
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I, along with plenty of others where I stand were getting increasingly frustrated with Carlton Cole. His first touch at times was worse than mine and his lack of aerial prowess was becoming embarrassing for a man with his height and strength, not to mention his composure in front of goal.
Now I appreciate him taking the pay cut and to be fair he played well in the final three games of the season, but as he proved throughout the whole of the season and even more so last season, he is not good enough tolead the line in the Premier League.
In modern day football there is no place for sympathy with a player like Cole. Just because he did sacrifice some money it doesn’t mean he is suddenly a legend at Upton Park. Just because he communicates on Twitter doesn’t mean he deserves to play week in week out against the best defenders in theworld.
It may be an unpopular opinion and may even be viewed as a rant, but when you play with just one striker you need him to score more than 15 goals in a regular season to be competitive. Cole has not done that in any season in his entire career from when he broke into the Chelsea side in 2001 and he certainly won’t next season.
I am happy to keep Carlton; who turns 29 at the start of next season; of course; he clearly loves it in East London and feels at home here having been born just south of the river, but to start the season with him as our mains triker in August is surely not an option.
Every now and again Cole works very hard and defends well from corners etc, a handful of his goals this season were terrific, but they are few and far between and for every one thing he does well, he seems to do four things poorly. In my opinion he simply isn’t good enough to lead the line in the Premier League, we have to be realistic and think with our heads not our hearts.
Disagree? Let me know below or abuse my Twitter account:@Brad_Pinard
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There ARE some pathetic knee-jerk response posts on here. The basic premis of Brads article was fair and balanced in terms of CC’s ABILITIES AS A PLAYER.
No one is questioning the guys commitment to WestHam, the fact that hes a decent, well balanced man, or any of these issues beyond the playing pitch.
FACT: Carlton Cole is NOT a top line Premiership striker. He IS a good Championship player, and an adequate Pemiership Squad player.
Technically, Cole is either poor or excellent…depends on his mood or, seemingly at times, which way the wind is blowing. Can anyone who has watched Carlton regularly, and with an open mind, say theyve known before the match just how well he was going to perform ??? The answer is no, because the guy is just so inconsistent; ranging from England class to non-league ball control standard, all within the space of a few games. Lets all be honest…he can be such a frustrating player to watch simply because we all know he has the tools and the ability when hes on his game to trouble the best defences and defenders, often battling up there alone, and with precious little meaningful support.
One thing we can agree on is that the guy has worked hard at his game and is a much better player than previous seasons. For that he must take great credit, and I really think he has made a lot of new, fans, and won over a lot of the doubters. However, if the unequivocal question is put to me, “Is Carlton Cole” going to score 20 goals plus for West ham nest season”, the answer is, unfortunately, a resounding no. HOWEVER, if a strike partner is found to play alongside him, then ive no doubt his physical presence will be enough to create goals for others, and that can be almost as good as hitting the back of the net himself. Lets see what Sam decides to do, but ill bet my house West ham will splash the (limited) cash for an experienced goalscorer in the coming weeks. COYI.
Jesus! What a mess!
In my opinion all i can say is that when im older my fond memories will be of players like Cottee, Mackevenie, Di Canio, Hartson, Ahston.
I certainly won’t be telling my grandkids how good Carlton Cole was.
I admit that finding quality strikers at cut prices is difficult but surely we have good enough scouts these days to find talent all over the world. We managed to sign players like Ashton/Benayoun the last time we were promoted and ended up in FA cup final.
At last someone who speaks some sense about Carlton Cole. Lovely guy. Works his socks off. Just not very good. Totally agree about his first touch. Awful. Totally agree about his heading ability. Awful. He jumps and no-one knows what part of him the ball’s going to hit. I’ve seen him not win a header all game and yet manager after manager (not just Allardyce) insists on playing him as a target man. Ludicrous. He’s a terribly clumsy tackler and he just falls over all the time. I love
his loyalty and his effort but we can’t go back nto the EPL with a player with such an appalling chance-to-goal conversion rate. Let’s get real now!
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