If you have been reading recent reports we are lead to believe than Liverpool’s Andy Carroll is only willing to join us permanently if his wage is increased to £100k a week.
Look, don’t get me wrong I appreciated Andy’s contribution towards the latter end of the seasons but apart from that, what did he really do?
Injured on his first game against Fulham; fair enough that’s unfortunate and it was only natural for it to take some time to heal and get back to full fitness-and I remain adamant that none of us would be too fussed about the possibility signing Carroll January/February time!
Although many of you will see signing the big man as a ‘step forward’ I see it as a step back, he isn’t the type of player to bag you 20 goals a season, his motives are questionable as well. I want a player to join West Ham for the thrill of playing at Upton Park and in front of our passionate fans; not because his best mate is there and a manager he is familiar with, some may argue that was an ‘extra incentive’ no, that was the only incentives!
With the departure of Carlton Cole and seemingly inevitable farewell of Modibo Maiga we are in desperate need of fire power, so I say we evaluate the options available to us, with players like Bent, Bony, Hooper and Rhodes (among others) out there. The money supposedly being demanded for Carroll could be invested on two or three decent attackers. Admittedly it would be a gamble, but signing a striker on a 100k a week who will be lucky to bag us 10 goals is a gamble…
too late now…
Everyone goes on and on about Rhodes and Hooper, but other than being good finishers, what do these 2 players actually offer? We already have a good finisher and his name is Kevin Nolan and he gets an unbelievable amount.of stick when he doesn’t score and he’s a midfielder, God only knows the sort of abuse these 2 would get if they had goal droughts. Let’s not forget that Rhodes is unproven at the highest level and I’d wager quite a lot of hos goals were from penalties.
Give me big Andy everyday of the week, I mean come on how many teams play a lone poacher in the premier league? Judas is the only one that springs to mind and he only scores because he’s actually quite good and because he has some of the fastest support players in the league.
Cant figure quite how a £35 million pound rated player getting £80000 per week at a top six club deserves a 20% pay rise when his value halves and he leaves for a mid table club. Surely a pay cut is required but the football money is basically stupid !
Have to agree with Ag, I believe Carroll is priceless, IS a big step up in the quality of signings for us.
I take your point about getting someone in who really wants to play for West Ham, the whole (thanks for the holiday but I’m gonna go back to liverpool now) vibe I got from Carroll isn’t the best thing, but unfortunately WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH to attract players with that mindset AND that quality, the only kind who would be stepping up are the Hoopers and Rhodes type which are an unknown quantity.
The amount of times we saw this season, defensive partnerships shit themselves by Carroll simply being on the pitch shows how valuable his presence is.
I really hope Carroll signs at any cost. although WE do need a good plan B, aka not another big guy, would like to see a nippy forward ‘defoe’ style. We really could do with a RW who is left footed to match Jarvis on the other side
and would like to see better back up to the inevitable injuries we will accumulate
Rhodes, Hooper and Austin have been banging goals in left right and centre all career. We say they are unproven but wasn’t Rickie Lambert, Jay Rodriguez and Shane Long to name a few. What about wilfried bony or (free agent Roque Santa Cruz). There are other options without spending huge amounts of money on a player that doesn;t really want to be with us. At the end of the day I wouldn’t want to see us throw money at a player who’s heart isn;t in it
We know how Sam plays, and we need a good old fashioned target man to effectively implement our game. That counts out Rhodes, hooper and possibly bent. Bony is a proven finisher in a league that is no where near the standard of the premier league: does anyone remember alfonso alves at middlesborough? Just because you score a ton of goals in holland and cost alot of money doesn’t mean you score on this league! His wages won’t be 100k but considering big Andy is costing 12.5m up front he’s likely to cost more money. I would not be happy for us to pay the ‘reported’ wage and if we can’t get him down by at least 20k then we need to look elsewhere. The problem we have is we know Carroll will be a big success, looking elsewhere will either be a risk or we will end up paying silly money that we probably haven’t got!
I agree that’s too much wages but your living in the past if hope a player will sign for the love of the club
I,m sorry but this crap has gone on long enough. he should do one even if he signs for us he will only use us as most others do.
at leased he,s not telling lies about it he does not want to be here so in my mind what the hell are we thinking about…….
if he wants Newcastle so bad then let him rot at Liverpool cos if I was an owner of of a football club I surly wouldn’t look at him a second time even if the manager wants him. the cost will come dear I assure you it will at some point & who do we blame then?
I’m a LFC Fan, for what its worth, rumour here has it, the six year deal is the main reason he wants 100k. 80k on a 4 year deal.
hi plank
the only reason the six year deal was put to his agent (again) was because the 100 grand a week was put in. as I understand it the board are willing to pay that wage as long as he signs a 6yr deal nothing more
Hi Shaun, interesting piece and for a club of our size and resources a debate worth having.
I have some issues with your main points:
Firstly, I don’t believe for a minute Carroll wants £100k per week. It’s speculation and just doesn’t make sense. The fee? Well, fees got out of control years ago but for me I think £15m for a 24 year old England international striker is top end but OK.
Next, what does he give us. Well, firstly and most importantly he fits the style of play and system perfectly. He works his nuts off every game and is a constant threat occupying both centre backs more often than not and creating chances for others. He also tries to test the keeper a lot. And, he’s very useful defending set pieces in our box.
His stats: Played 24, scored 7 and 4 assists. You’ve admitted yourself he took some to get fit when injured (twice) so for a mid-table team, I would say that return is decent.
If you seriously see us signing a young, hungry English centre-forward from Liverpool for a club record fee as a step back, that’s fair enough. But I would say as a statement of intent for a club in it’s second season back, it’s a massive step forward.
We were signing Nicky Maynard and John Carew pretty recently. You’re entitled to your opinion but Darren Bent is pushing 30 and couldn’t get in Villa’s team last year. I (and most other West Ham fans praising him) have not seen Bony play. Always a risk to sign players not used to Prem football. Hooper plays in Scotland and Rhodes has 1 year at Championship level. None are any less risky than Carroll, even at a lower cost and none are anywhere near ‘a step forward’
Where does it say that we need a striker to score 20 goals? How many teams outside the top 4-5 have regular 20+ goals per season strikers? If he scores 12-15 and assists another 4-6 I’d take that. Especially if Nolan gets his share from midfield. His record of nearly 1 in 3 is fine for a mid-table club.
Lastly, his motive. If your criteria is a good value, 20 goal per season player who loves West Ham, good luck. He is a professional footballer. I doubt he was thrilled at coming to us last year but you wouldn’t think it seeing him play would you? It’s World Cup year, I think his motivation to do well for us will be fine.
Strikers are expensive. English strikers that are proven to be pretty good in the Prem are very expensive. But they are the difference between 10th and Europe. We got to ‘try before we buy’ and the fact we are even in for a striker of this stature shows ambition we should be applauding as fans.
So is he worth it? Yeah, I reckon he’s totally worth it.
Gizzi I think you’re 1st paragraph hits the nail on the head; there are far too many football fans ready to believe what the press are reporting. We are on the close season and there is nothing really happening in the football world so lazy, crap journos are making up the facts. Everything reported has been from ‘a source’. I Also don’t believe there is this I want 100k to sign, I think it’s even less likely that he wants to sit on the mickeys bench in World Cup year and why is everyone so convinced he is waiting on a bid from the barcodes; where has he said this at what are the sources. The press take all of us footie fans for mugs and I think he will sign for no more than what he is currently on at Liverpool
Gizzi that is the most levelheaded and logical post I have read on the whole Andy Carroll debate. Pure speculation about the 100k he apparently wants but even it was the case, with him signed we can look up the table instead of down. My only worry is he seems slightly injury prone so if the contract offer to him could reflect that I’d feel a lot happier,we don’t want another Dean Ashton(injury wise!) on our hands.
Time to give it up. He has very limited options. If reports are to be believed, Liverpool are willing to spend 20K a week to ensure he doesn’t play there. Newcastle aren’t willing to pay actual money for him. He’s only ransoming himself, and no one is coming for him. I kind of feel bad for the lad.
I can’t help thinking that Carroll will come to us,purely because he has nowhere else to go,LFC do not want him Newcastle seem to have dropped their interest. Surely that means we hold all the aces doesn’t it, we should be negotiating from a position of strength.He seems to have had a few injuries, last season and I think we should pay according to how many games he plays for us.I read today that he is reluctant to sign a six year contract,that also worries me. I would always prefer a player who wants to play for us.
agreed
he played well for us BUT he has made it plainly clear he doesn’t want to be here so why are we (so I,ve seen elsewhere) putting all our eggs in one basket as we need a few more players & there is only so much we are able to spend
just my opinion
Please show me some clear evidence or quote showing he doesn’t want to play for us.
Would he rather get into Liverpool’s team? Probably. Fair enough.
Would he like to go back to his hometown club where he started his career? Maybe.
If he signs for us will he give 100% and do well? Yep.
Let’s put it this way, do you think Diame will stick around if someone triggers his clause? He put some filthy performances in last year. So did Vaz Te. I never once questioned AC commitment to us when he wore our shirt.
Guys, these are professional footballers. Apart from Noble (maybe) none of our players dreamed of playing for West Ham when they were babies.
That’s kind of our job as supporters 🙂
Gizi,
Well said mate.. he gave 100 percent… I have seen him on many occasions this season defending in the last minute… running to the end…
Rumours are put out by people with an axe to grind… Bitter geordie claims Carroll thinks Cockneys are w@nkers… suddenly its “news”… let’s wait and see eh… Give the lad a chance..
Equally… he’s earning 80k a week… big money… so he should work his nad’s off!
His performances when fit have been great… watch his celebration against Tottscum at home.. ok we lost… but he ran in front of them with two fingers up.. (the pleasant way round) screaming… he is a passionate boy and i for one hope he signs… if he does not… we move on… simples.
Exactly, well said. Some ppl think you either love West Ham from birth or you are a mercenary who doesn’t care. There is plenty in between.
He is not worth that money, this is a big mistake for us, his doesn’t really want to be with us, if he did he would have put pen to paper straight away!! He is injury prone!!!!….. What is it with fat Sam??
To be perfectly honest jermain Defoe would be good, he is a prolific goal scorer!!
Defoe…..
Are you WHU?
or under 7 years old??
Andy is good but he not worth 15m plus 100,000 and his heart belongs to another club. There is a lot of really good players with no contract and what happens when he gets injured again and we have no strikers coz we spent all our funds on one player. And Sam has to be thinking about all these things , well Sam has picked well for us its his call
,
He is still on holiday (reportedly with some West Ham players) so I think all of the reports about asking for 100k per week are just paper talk and agent talk. I would guess that he will start thinking about whether to sign for us next week when he is back but I also think that ultimately he will go where his agent tells him to go and that will be where the agent thinks he will get the biggest cut of the fees and commission for himself.
If there are absolutely no offers at all from anyone else then his agent will push him to us to get a cut of the 15 mill. His agent will obviously hang on for the biggest deal.
The only reason he won’t sign for us is if someone else comes in with an offer of 15 mill or more or if Gold and Sullivan and Fatsam get fed up with being piffed about.
apart from saving your ar*e what did he really do? maybe you should have gone down.
he did not save our ar*e ar*e hole
stop reading the papers who would write anything to sound good. if he is still on holiday, then think would you go on holiday to think about work I definitely don’t know if I could waste a good holiday just like that as I work hard and need a holiday to relax, time will tell not the media
Its a negotiation. No doubt he has asked for silly wages, he knows he’ll have to come down. I have to say I trust our owners to do the right thing. They’re no mugs. I reckon two strikers in ac being one. I agree with gizzi. No player comes to west ham because of the claret and blue, its business and they want to showcase they’re skills whilst getting paid as much as they can. Andys a decent player, worth 15m his salary won’t be 100k. Well done on the keeper btw bfs, looks like a good kid
I agree with every word you have said about Andy Carrol, in fact I have said he doesn’t really wany to sign for West ham so will he give 100%? I doubt it, and to pay him £100,000 pound a week is ridiculous, for the transfer fee and his weekly wage we could have at least two who will do as good a job as Carroll or even better.
For him to keep us waiting because he thinks Newcastle or someone else will come for him. Well I say sorry Mr Carroll but we are not going to be messed about any longer we will go elsewhere. Thank you very much.
100% agree with you john
yes he did give 100% performance for other reasons as well as for us.
Gizzi I think you answered you own questions there m8 in one
I think it is a very bad idea to use most of our budget on someone who has had 3 injuries in less than a year.If only our scouts could find some gems out there.