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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your nuts
How can you say he isn’t good enough, he has produced some good things at premier league level. He needs confidence and when you make comments like this no wonder he has none. Get behind him. He was driven to stoke because we needed the money. Back the players don’t try and make them feel outsiders. He has contributed on his own since 2008, when bellamy and ashton were injured most weeks. Although cole isn’t bellamy or ashton standard, he still did contribute. We just didn’t have a good midfield or defence which sent us down. Not cole!
He is good enough for West Ham but not as first choice striker.
Keep him in the squad, he is good for the club. Just make sure we buy better strikers to lead the line in the premier league as Carlton Cole will not hit double figures.
We have three very important players here who is our backbone: Cole, Noble and Tomkins. Without them we are not the same. Cole in form is more than terrific and without him we would still be in the coca cola league. Cause he was the best and most important player for us om Wembley. For that you should be ever greatful. When it really matters he is terrific for us. And we should be Happy to have some players with à big heart for our beloved club.
You should be ashamed for even posting such an article. Now take it off and learn how to be loyal to one of the greatest servants of the club.
One of the most ridiculous comments I have ever seen.
Well your article is the most ridiculous i have ever seen so read the above comment again and again and again until you grow up and SUPPORT your club and everyone in it…. SUPPORT
think youre bang on to be honest and i dont see how people think otherwise. he has scored some important goals. but long story short he will be the next heskey. his touches are often woeful and his finishing isnt great. but he does have a habit of shutting me up. ive had this opinion for a while and then he will do something like the goal scored against birmingham in last years carling cup semi which was unreal which makes you wonder. i think its fair to say that we cant rely on him …
I,m amazed that people want to keep Carlton Cole. You only have to look at his goal scoring record for the past 2-3 seasons to see that we need someone who is more prolific in front of goal.
According to sky sports today ,West Ham scored more goals then any other team in the division. I think Cole and Vaz T showed they can work well togther. That bodes well for next season.
Cole is inconsistant though, Vaz T will take the pressure off Cole.
Now, who has been our top goalscorer for the last few years? I forget his name….
CC has scored a total of 35 goals in 3 seasons which is not a very good return for a striker who is supposed to be our top marksman.
Go on then you name a better striker than CC for us this year, and dont say Vaz Te hes a midfielder!
But that’s not exactly saying he can be prolific in the premier league !! What your basically saying is he was the best of a bad bunch.
15 goals this season, when he is played as a lone striker? problem is your looking JUST at goals alone and NOT at how many games he changed, or how many times that 1 goal that he scores is the winner.
i think we need to get another striker to partner up with him, two up front along with vaz te out wide. maybe rodriguez or yakuba? or even saha?
huge clubs and man city dont go in the same sentence
how would you describe them then??
prem champs,
huge following,
fantastic players,
richest club in world….
hardly small time are they???
yes cole is inconsistant, but if he could find the form he showed toward the end of the season we would have great player, is it bfs who got that out of him. bringing in maynard and vaz ta, cole needed that wake him up. 20/25 would of been bettter this term, but 15 next season in the prem will do. coyi
Not to be negative but havent we been saying this for years about Cole, Every season there’s this debate about cole and if he’s in form he can do well but it just never materialises. ??
You got to be on crack or some thing cole has been our top goal scorer striker wise now for the past 4 years 1 under curbishley zola grant and allerdyce he’s proved that on his day he’s unplayable please do me a favor and tell me who we could actually get that is better then him??? You are crackers and there is no way I’d take another striker ahead of coke who just wants a pay day where we have a player who loves the club loves the fans or a player who will do a demba ba when things don’t go so right!!! Yet another person who goes on like we’re so world class club when actually we have hit come 3rd in the championship letting it all get to your head fella
Since posting my comment in support of Brad I’ve read more of the comments. I can’t believe the deluded nonsense some people are saying. OF COURSE HE WAS OUR TOP SCORER. THAT’S WHY WE WERE RELEGATED. NOT ENOUGH GOALS SCORED. Yes sometimes he holds the ball up well and brings players into the game. But not often enough. Couple that with his poor strike rate and there you have it.
I gave up posting realistic comments on these sites (yes realistic, not negative) because I got bored with people who refused to face the truth. I think being a good fan (and I have been for 45 years) is about mixing loyalty with realism. So I repeat. Let’s get real.
Carlton’s form has been inconsistent, it’s true, but he’s in form now and starting to fit into a style of play that Big Sam wants. At last, it looks like it’s working. It’d be crazy to let him go now. He’s starting to forge a relationship with Vaz Te: let’s see how that develops. If we find another striker who’s better for money we can afford, happy days. But in the meantime, we need to build on, not dismantle our squad.
Sing his name and he’ll score you a goal. Boo him and he’ll have a shocker. Simples.
Are you a booer by any chance?
Don’t disagree completely, but 20 goal a season strikers are hard to come by unless you spend a huge amount of cash, and let’s face it if you’re good enough you’re not going to sign for us, as a newly promoted side. Occasionally you do unearth a gem on the cheap but many bigger clubs have tried and failed on numerous occasions.
Personally, I feel a club like ours will do well to get better at this point in time.
So to back your comments up who do suggest we can realistically replace him with.
But a decent article nonetheless . COYI
I personally agree with the whole article. Everyone makes a fair comment, yes he has been our top goal scorer, yes he has been loyal and definitely when he turns up he is one formidable opponent. But this article points that out, he just doesn’t show up enough.
When the ball comes to him I never know what to expect, he could control it expertly or the ball pings off his foot in a random direction. Sometimes he can hold the ball up really well and invite other players into the game, sometimes he will just fall to the floor like Emile Heskey always does.
Also he never really knows when to pass rather than shoot. He is not good enough as our main man…the problem is, the players up front who we have signed just don’t work in the BFS system, Maynard and Baldock have both proved what players they can be in the right system, they both make brilliant runs to split the defence, when a nice through ball would be amazing (which I recall seeing at the home leg of the Cardiff home leg play-off match and Maynard drilled it home perfectly, no questioning his finishing) but too often we only bring them on when chasing a game, so the ball is kicked long to these two players who don’t reach 6 foot and therefore they look useless.
I’d personally rather see Vaz Te up front with Maynard as they’ve both proved they can score goals, yes Cole was great in the latter parts of the season, but Vaz Te was the main threat, teams either let him cut inside and score, go wide and deliver or mark him so much they forgot about our other players. Unfortunately I doubt we will ever see the best of Maynard or Baldock that Bristol and MK saw with Sam in charge. He’s a great manager but these 2 promising young players will never even get a look in…which I feel is a shame.
In the case of the system we do play, I wouldn’t mind seeing Vaz Te in the middle with two good wingers/inside forwards either side of him. He’s personally done more to me than Cole ever really has throughout his career, he’s a good team man but not a good enough player to be a leading star.
As a Lancastrian I’d like to have seen Blackpool come up, but credit where it’s due, you came up on the strength of your defence. The Prem is mad though, with goals scored the difference between success and failure. You’ll definitely need more firepower if you aren’t to end up like Wolves (Blackburn too – although they always looked capable of scoring, it was their defence that let them down). Anyway, good luck to your team and all your fans – I have fond memories of Upton Park in the good ol’ days….
I think your wrong, i think Carlton Cole is a great striker, he changes games, he may not be the most prolific but he does score goals and he scores important goals. i like vaz te and he is a great player no doubt but everyone says he was our saviour in the playoff, but who scored the opener? who ended up setting up vaz te? Carlton Cole scores as many goals as rooney (if you take away rooneys penalties)carlon scored 15 goals this year? he needs another striker with him, vaz te out wide and we have a formiddible front.
lets stop having a go at the an easy target and a nice guy.
Please.
disagree? let me know with your comments,
The home game v Spurs 23 Aug 2009 says everything about Carlton …
Sublime strike and we lead.
Stupid backpass sets up Defoe and we end up losing.
I thought he showed some good heart in latter part of the season, but don’t believe we can rely on Cole to score enough goals for us.
I admire Carlton for taking a pay cut to stay with us and help get us back up. Not many players in the game today would do that.
However, the question is, “Is he good enough to be our main goal threat next season?”. The answer in my opinion is no.
Yes he scored 15 goals last season but against Championship defences. Yes he scored the opener in the final, but who gave the ball away for Blackpool’s equaliser?
He has never performed well at the top level and for all his admirable qualities of loyalty and honesty, if we got an offer of £5m or more i would snap their arms off and invest in a replacement.
Like the sound of Bas Dost. 6ft 4in, Top Scorer in Eredivisie last season, 32 goals in 34 games. If reports are right we have offered £7m.
No room to be sentimental. Thanks for getting us back up Carlton. Now we need to move on.