Despite a promising start, Andy Carroll has failed to impress the majority of supporters during his time at West Ham. Are the claret and blue army being overly critical of Carroll’s ‘extended trial period’ at the club or will his loan prove to be a costly error? We review the England striker’s time in east London to get some answers.
Bright start
The vast majority of Hammers fans rejoiced in August when West Ham agreed a loan deal with Liverpool to take Carroll for the season with a view to a permanent deal. The England international did, after all, seem like the perfect man to spearhead the Hammers side that Sam Allardyce has put together.
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Carroll gave those happy Hammers a real reason to be cheerful when he introduced himself to them with an excellent display in West Ham’s 3-0 victory over Fulham at Upton Park. The 23-year-old striker did everything that could be asked of him in that game, despite failing to score a goal.
Injuries
Sadly, Carroll was injured two-thirds of the way through his debut and found himself on the treatment table for a month.
Since his return from that injury, Carroll has shown glimpses of the domineering centre-forward we saw against Fulham, but has not had the same sort of influence on games, causing some of the West Ham faithful to grow impatient with him. Carroll’s goal tally of just one in 10 appearances has only exacerbated the problem.
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To make matters even worse, Carroll will not be able to get on the scoresheet again for perhaps up to eight weeks due to the knee injury he picked up in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United. Carroll missed the 3-1 win over Chelsea last week as a result of his current ailment. In his absence, Carlton Cole put in a superb performance up front for West Ham. Cole scored the goal that pulled the Hammers back level and then laid the ball on a plate for Mohammed Diame to fire us ahead in that marvellous victory.
Down the pecking order
Should Cole manage to build on that display and rediscover the form he showed when playing under Gianfranco Zola, Carroll may find West Ham labelling surplus to requirements just as Liverpool did.
What should really concern Carroll and his advocates, though, is that Cole was substituted on the 87th minute in that game and his replacement, Modibo Maiga, managed to score West Ham’s third and seal a famous win in the London derby against the European champions.
That was Modibo Maiga’s fourth goal in all competitions this season, which is quite an impressive amount for a player supposedly still settling in to English football since his transfer from French side Sochaux in the summer. The Mali international’s goal tally is all the more impressive given that he has been limited mainly to substitute appearances and has usually been played out of position when he has started games.
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Maiga has been criticised for his poor form a lot in recent weeks. But, when he is played as a centre-forward as he should be, he tends to score goals. With Carroll injured and only Carlton Cole to compete with, Maiga may be able to stamp his place in the West Ham starting 11, especially if Cole does fail to achieve the consistency he has always lacked.
That would see Carroll slip to third in the pecking order of West Ham front-men and surely destroy any chance of West Ham wanting to meet the reported demands made by both Liverpool and the player himself for Carroll’s proposed permanent transfer to east London.
A costly mistake
It is hard comprehend West Ham – a club still in a huge amount of debt, remember – shelling out around £18m on a player who will supposedly earn £100k per week and has a goal average of 0.1.
But, if some news stories are to be believed, West Ham might not have a choice in the matter. After all, when Carroll was loaned to West Ham near the end of the last transfer window, reports suggested that the deal agreed on the premise of West Ham being contractually bound to buy Carroll from Liverpool for around £17m if the Hammers should avoid relegation from the Premier League this season.
If that is the case and West Ham’s survival results in the club having to buy Carroll, fans would do well to remind themselves that the Geordie striker is only 23 years old. He has already proven he can score goals in England’s top flight and has bags of potential too.
He is, however, still a very expensive a risk to take. Liverpool know that all too well. Hopefully West Ham can learn from the Merseysiders’ mistake and ensure Andy Carroll’s trial in east London does not become a catastrophic error.
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Whether Andy is (or was) a good fit for Liverpool is a mute point. Certainly the £35 million shelled out by the Liverpool hierarchy was an act of monumental madness, however Andy is well worth £15-20 million – assuming of course that injuries do not take their toll.
As a Liverpool fan, I would have liked Andy Carroll to have spent this season at Anfield, however Rodgers has his philosophy and clearly does not see a role in his teams for a big, traditional English forward. At the same time, I would be surprised if West Ham have an obligation to buy Carroll at the end of the season – what they most likely have is an option to bring Andy to Upton Park for a pre-defined amount (and this assuming that Andy is keen to go there anyway).