6 years and going strong, Carlton Cole has been scoring and underperforming for West Ham. Though now we are back in the Premier League, Will we always believe in Carlton Cole? Or should we look for a striker to replace the number 9?
At the start of the 2006-07 season, we signed Carlton Cole from Chelsea after the striker had spent 3 years out on loan to various clubs trying to find first team football. Having hoped to return to Chelsea and get into the first team, this dream didn’t happen so; he left for West Ham on a 4-year contract.
It certainly took Carlton a while to reach the number 9 shirt and regular first team football. For a long while he was considered as the weaker option behind Carlos Tevez, Dean Ashton and Bobby Zamora though Carlton has shown loyalty and passion during his time in East London. Which is highly commendable, he is still scoring goals and unfortunately he still has to prove himself to the West Ham fans. His record shows that in over 200 appearances he has scored 56 goals. Though he so far will be remembered for some of his miserable and very inconsistent form.
At times Cole has been invaluable, scoring goals in lightning form, and his high record of assists needs to be taken into account, and his last assist was a pass into the feet of Ricardo Vaz Te at Wembley. During his career at West Ham he has earned an England call up, never a start but has made 7 substitute showings. This will show that his current stay at West Ham will be a memorable one.
The problem is that, he is inconsistent and he at times feels like a block to the attack when he finds the ball, he looks devoid of confidence and creativity when he looks to make that killer instinctive move. So will we always believe in Carlton Cole now that we have been promoted? If the right striker becomes available in the market to we look to make him our new star striker and make Cole the weaker striking option again?
I feel that we need to carry on the belief in Carlton, though we must be aware that we cannot pin all our hopes of goal scoring on him. The club is looking for a new striker, whether this is to partner Carlton or take his place in the team is unaware. Carlton needs to be rewarded. He took a high wage cut to show loyalty last summer and he has shown very good form at the end of last season but I worry if he can carry this over. For me 15 goals for a Premier League striker in the Championship isn’t good enough, if he wants to be prolific he needs to score more goals in the Premier League. It may be a decisive year for Carlton in his career; we shall have to see whether our trust in Carlton will pay off, because if he doesn’t set it ablaze this year, when will he?
Carlton Cole’s style of play and ability to hold up the ball is why he is in the first team. He plays an important role in the team, he will never be a prolific goalscorer, but no striker outside the top 4 in the last 5 years has been (back to back seasons)
Well said James!
When people use the tag inconsistent with Carlton Cole, they forget the poor teams that he played in for most of that time and the fact that he was Often used as a lone striker. When you take these small matters into account, you really start to appreciate what great unselfish work he has done for this club.
As a player he scores goals, brings others into play through his ability to hold the ball and takes pressure of the defence and midfield. His value to our team is massively understated!
He’s a top man in my eyes!
Same here James, same here!
Exactly the same stats as Darius Henderson from Millwall, GS-15 Assists-5, Joint 9th top goal scorers in the championship, 2011/12
…….and?
would you sign Henderson, or even think he is premier league quality,
Whilst as a man he must be commended,he has shown great loyalty to west ham but is the fact he took a paycut last season due to his loyalty or more due to the fact that moves to stoke city and galatasary fell through?
However as a player im sorry but he just doesnt cut it.Not in a west ham jersey anyway.He showed flashes of brilliance when Zola was manager,Zola seemed to be really working with carlton and developing him as aplayer,but far to often those flashes of brilliance have been to few and far between,he doesnt chase and close down enough,when ever involved in build up play he always seems to slow it down and we lose momentum,and his goal scoring is abysmal,we dominated most games last season in the championship and with a half decent goal scorer we would of walked that league,put ricky lambert or billy sharp in our front line last year and we would of set a championship record-and those guys arent exactly premiership quality.We need a goalscorer because we arent going to dominate and create the chances like we did last season,so we do get a chance this year we need to take it
Loyalty is looked at cynically in Cole’s case, but in other cases players are conveniently money grabbing mercenaries. But I guess if you said the sky was green no one could argue as it’s your perception.
Before you start talking about Cole slowing things down you need to look at the set up of the side and the players either providing opportunities or the players that have been playing alongside. Maybe some of our supporters have blind spots in perception and are also sometimes deluded. But I guess that’s life.
notice the question mark-kinda shows that it wasnt a statement.
yep that is life,some people just think there opinion is right no matter what,and any1 that disagrees is wrong lmfao
Therock – While you’re right about Zola’s influence on Cole I can’t agree that we failed to “walk the league” last season because of Cole’s deficiencies. We did get a proven Championship goalscorer in when we signed Maynard in January and he didn’t deliver either. Surely that indicates that the reason we weren’t getting the ball in the net enough was something other than the men up front.
i didnt mean it was just coles fault,sorry i ment the strikers we have,be it maynard,baldock,cole or the other incumbants,the level of finishing lacked quality.Maybe its just me,but every game i saw we created alot of chances that went begging.
I jsut think with a quality goalscorer that league would of been a walk in the park.Take the 1st game of the season-cardiff at home-we should of been 3 or 4 up,yet went down 1-nil,alot of the drawn games we blew chances,even some ganes we lost,southampton away for example,the finishing was our downfall.i’m sorry if i expect to much,but i love my club
Our strikers took the brunt of the criticism last year and BFS produced statistics to prove we had passed the ball in to the opposition box more than our counterparts. For me the statistics masked a problem – the poor quality of that pass, and where it was from. A lob from between our 18 yard line and the half way line to an isolated CC was never likely to yield a bucket of goals, and Maynard and Baldock (and even Piquionne) were usually played out of position out wide. We improved with a support striker (Vaz Te) played in a much freer role closer to Cole. The key this year in my opinion will be adding pace on the wings and accuracy of crosses rather than just a Holt-type option.
I agree if Ricky lambert had played for us last year we would have walked it. i also think that without Carlton we would have struggled last year he was top scorer the assist for vaz Te at wembley ‘well priceless’ the reason Vaz Te was able to operate was often because the other side was busy marking CC. He is strong / selfless and loves the club. When you hear experts talking about centre forward play last year in the championship. CC was often praised for his overall displays. Having said all this I think he do it all again score 15 goals in the EPL give us 5 to 7 assists for it to be considered a good season. PS. I think BS will buy 2-3 more players and keep us up without a dogfight.
I think Carlton Cole did a brilliant job for us last year but some fans have never taken to him and no matter how many good things he did in a game as soon as he made a mistake they were on his back. Most games he had two defenders on him and a lot of the time balls were just pumped up and he was left on his own to fight for scraps.Its hard work playing up front on your own and you cant expect some body to chase and chase for 90 mins with out a rest. I also think he was so important that Big sam often played him when he was not 100% fit. I do believe he can still improve especially as his nickname “Cant control” often summed him up and far too often his second touch was a tackle. I dont think there are many premier league defenders who will look forward to marking him.
I long have been a critic of Carltons ability and consistency. However he certainly holds the ball up well and has admitted he would rather become a cult hero than a money grabbing trophy winner. Good luck to him with noble and tompkins i hope we have a spine to last for the next 5 years. Carlton cole always beleive in his soul if not his footballing ability.