This week I have been asked: ‘Should we offer Carlton Cole a new contract?’ Well after a big summer of beer and pies, Cole is finally fit again to play a 90 minute game of football. The big question is should we be looking to extend his contract till the end of the season or should we use the money for someone else?
Cole has scored three times in December and is in some good form, so really why would you let his contract expire? Yes there is a chance of injury and Cole is a touch injury prone. But the hardest part about transfers is getting the guy to take of their shirt and put a West Ham one on. Cole’s home is West Ham, he took a 50% pay cut and stayed with us when we went down, despite there being offers on the table.
I have never seen a recent copy of Cole’s pay check, so I can’t say for sure how much he is on. But I believe it would be about the £20-30,000 a week deal, maybe even £40,000. Whatever the cost is, Cole will be very likely to stay should an extension be offered till the end of the season.
However what about the flip side of the coin? What happens if we miss out on a player who is better that we could get in on loan? Manchester United’s Wilfried Zaha is a player that West Ham are mad if they don’t try to get to Upton Park. Furthermore, Manchester City’s Jack Rodwell is a good young midfielder that could do with a six month spell at West Ham and give us some more options in the midfield. However these type of players would not come to West Ham for wages of the kind that Cole is on, the really good players want big money and that brings me to my next point.
We have no idea how much money is in the bank or how much the owners will pump into the club, this January. But we do know that there is some money, and that we are actively hunting for more options. The fact that Cole has scored against Manchester United and Arsenal is sure to be on the owners mind. While he didn’t score against West Brom, he wasn’t awash with chances either. I think he has done well of late, and I think most people would agree.
Sam Alladyce has said about how hard it is to get players through the door. Some of these players think that they are going to go to a big club because that’s what their agents tell them. They also tell them that they can get a deal done for them and they will play week in week out, this is all rubbish some players that are rejecting a move need to see that they won’t play for any of the big club any time soon, or if they do they will be a very expensive spectator. The advantage of Cole is he is here right now with the shirt on and wants to keep playing.
So I say give him a contract till the end of the season, he might just surprise us all. He is our joint leading goal scorer for the season in the Premier League. To simply let him go is madness.
Get someone else in first, then let him go, he is not good enough for the premiership.
Apparently 2 deals are already tied up one for heitinga and another for young inter striker isak belfodi if it is true then I think we need another right back and a winger zaha on loan and maybe someone like Chris solly for the future
You have to be mad to offer him another contract. 2/3 goals have been easy tap ins that anyone could score so that does not make him on form. I watched him against west brom and quite frankly he was joke, all he does is foul unlike maiga when he jumps for a header. Nowhere near PL standard anymore and should not be offered another contract
Those 2/3 tap in’s as you put it, weren’t put in by anyone else though we’re they, no-one else was in the position to do it
What happens if we let Cole go, and heaven forbid Carroll gets injured again?
Surely better to have someone, than no-one
The latest news says Carroll to return within 2 – 3 weeks, so what does Sam want to do in the Jan transfer window? buy defenders. Look I am with you lads, as after more than 45 years of supporting the Hammers, I used to always like going to watch an exciting, attacking West ham match. As we all know, Sam is more in the Tony Pulis mould & totally defensive minded. I do respect a good defense, so we’ll see if Pulis’s defense tactics pull Palace out, but with Palace only scoring 12 goals so far this season, I doubt it. We, likewise have only scored 18, and you can’t defend much with that. I think we could have signed Pardew when Newcsatle were struggling last year. I really like Pardew. He got us to the FA Cup final in 2006, and he is a Londoner, but I doubt if Alan would come back now with Newcastle right up in the table, so if West ham sacked Sam, I couldn’t personally suggest a replacement. If he signs Asamoah Gyan, and he plays alongside Carroll, and we start scoring stacks of goals with 2 top notch strikers, I’b be inclined to say keep the management as is, but the press is revealing that it really is the owners lack of funds to pay top wages as the reason good players don’t want to come here, as the saying goes, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. It’s all about money lads. We have to keep the pressure on the owners to splash the cash & get good players wanting to come here. Sam’s talking about signing defenders, Ok, as long as he signs another good stiker like Asamoah, or the club will continue to face a fans rebellion, because yes, with the money fans pay to watch these games, we want more for our money, but it’s not just about our money, we want to be entertained and we want to see wins happening now. We don’t want a catch up situation like QPR had last year, here for us this year. Bloody well sign a striker Sam!
And yes, we can’t let C. Cole go until we have more strikers here. Maiga has improved out of sight. He is now playing better than Carlton, but with these 2, we still only have 2 strikers so we can’t let Cole go, and we still have to see if Carroll can stay injury free. They say Carroll flew through his medical when signed, well really fit athletes don’t get injuries very much, so keep all the strikers we have and sign at least one more.
It sounds as though Reid is out till the end of February. If so, and Tomkins is sidelined for 4 weeks or more, we will be in dire straits whether Carroll is back or not. We need a central defender on that basis. And a striker And keep Cole!!! BFS is not good at integrating new players. It took weeks for him to play Rat and Morrison. And then there’s the Petric debacle!!!
In other words, i wouldn’t expect a new player to come in and make an immediate impact. And that is what we have to have. The board are going to have to stump up, or face the real threat of Championship football. They are going to have to pay the price of playing Russian Roulette in the last window. I anticipate a move for Defoe. Now if we could get him, and Carroll, playing together then i can see a solution. BUT Sam playing with 2 main strikers!!!
if he stays on the path his on yes (we need goals) but we need more and yes I know he has to score more but he has been one of a few good player .