Record signing Andy Carroll has remained a regular talking point amongst West Ham fans.
Despite injury hampering much of his time at the Hammers, his continued listing on the wage bill has always sparked a debate around his merit to the team.
His lack of football, and his somewhat underwhelming goal return for a £15million price tag, has made many question whether he was a smart signing, given the financial resources required.
And last week when Sam Allardyce confirmed the club’s earlier interest in Wilfried Bony, there were further wistful comments of what might have been.
The Swansea striker has scored more Premier League goals this calendar year than any other player, and has bagged 23 in just under 50 games since his move from Vitesse in July 2013.
Since joining on loan at West Ham a year earlier, Carroll has made just 44 appearances, scoring 11 times.
The fact the Ivory Coast striker was touted generated questions around whether the powers that be at the Boleyn had backed the wrong decision.
Sunday’s game offered fans the chance to compare the powerful centre forwards first-hand and in terms of whether Carroll was the best choice, the jury has to still be out.
Yes, the management and supporters will be living off his two goals (his first of the season) and one assist.
But Bony also did what he does so regularly, and converted a simple striker’s finish, brought about by great movement and positioning.
He was an imposing presence throughout the game at both ends of the pitch, and hit the bar with a chance that could easily have re-established The Swans’ lead.
The big difference, and what any informed decision has to come down to, is simply consistency. Carroll has suffered recurring injuries, and the way he plays means there will forever be weaknesses where those problems have previously been.
Bony has undoubtedly been the more productive influence since arriving, in terms of game time and goals. The weekend’s result does go someway to justifying Carroll was a decision not to regret, but one game cannot define it.
If he breaks down again, there is no doubt Bony’s continued good form will leave a sour taste.
Missing the point?? I dont think so!! At the time west ham bought Caroll he had come off a successful loan season where he was catalyst in our progress that year – Bony was a slightly cheaper deal but he had no PL pedigree at that time so the signing would have been a gamble – hindsight would say Bony has done very well and is a very good signing, as opposed to Caroll who has ended up with significant injuries that have hampered his game time – but imo even if both had been fit and played the same number of games, Bony is likely to be a more prolific scorer than Caroll while Caroll is likely to have a smaller goal tally but greater assists stats – on balance each player has different attributes even though they play the same position, both are as important as each other to their relevant clubs – however im a hammers fan and have been all my life which probably makes me an old sentimental fan, Caroll on his day is just about unplayable, the team without doubt rise with his presence, he offers exactly what you know you are going to get and others thrive off his strengths, not to mention in the air he is probably as good as it gets which is why he bagged 2 against swansea – his injuries are the only thing that detract from his greatness, but he plays with a passion that means he will always pick up something, but i also believe he is over the worst of what hes been thru the last 2 season and will become a significant player for west hams progress over the next few years – i guess what im saying is id rather have Caroll in the side than Bony, of course thats just my opinion, but whats even better is the likes of Valencia and Sakho are also just as important and all three can play with any of the other in any set up – imo our front line options are fantastic, up there with the top 4-6 teams, if we can keep them all fit and maintian this form then our goalscoring prowess can only get better – one other point id like to make is in defence – Reid is refusing to sign a new deal unless he gets more money, or more than he been offered – his agents are doing the negotiating but its very apparant they already have a better offer on the table which is why they wont budge – Reid has been a great player for us, buy imo he isnt break the bank good enough for anyone and wont be that hard to replace which is why he is likely to be offloaded in January – its a surprising development from Reid that he plays this game now given where west ham are currently and heading as things are looking great for the future and with the OS move are likely to get better, but he has his motivations and its obvious they arent about west ham or their progress, i thnk he is also a tad nieve in thnking he is a guaranteed start at a bigger club, still its his future so let him have it – lastly i have to say i dont blame west ham for not caving to Reid, imo our most important next acquisition for a permanent deal is Alex Song, hes been brilliant, closely followed by Carl Jenkinson who has also fitted in fantastically to this set up – imo Reid is the one who is losing out by moving on not west ham, we may only get 6-8 mil for him which is a few mil less than his true market value, but i think we could bring in a suitable replacement for less than that anyway – and needless to say we still have a few squad players we need to improve upon and can be moved on, Vaz Te, Demel, CCole, Jarvis for starters – from a die hard hammers fan ad always will be – COYI
Fair play Simon, you are a biased WH supporter and I am a biased Swansea City supporter so it will not surprise you that I disagree with your comments. In the 10 games AC played before Sunday he ha scored no goals and provided no assists, Wilf had scored 6 PL goals and provided quite a few assists, 2 in particular for Gomis against Chelsea and Man City no less which Gomis fluffed with only the goalkeeper to beat. If we had won on Sunday Swansea would be above WH in the table so please don’t get carried away.
In fairness to AC he did play well on Sunday and deserved his goals but he was assisted by our worst defensive performance of the season, period. Let’s see how he gets on for the rest of the season and in particular against the best defenders, Kompany, Terry, Mertesecker etc before you put him on another false pedestal. It is a well known fact that Allardyce loves big physical players and I remember earlier this season after WHbeat the mighty Sunderland and I think ACscored a couple, big Sam telling everyone he should be in the England World Cup squad. My point-simple. Don’t be deluded into making exaggerated praise for any player after one good game.