In the lead up to Sunday’s game against Swansea City, Sam Allardyce spoke in an interview about how West Ham nearly ended up with Swansea’s Wilfried Bony, but signed Andy Carroll instead saying “it was one or the other.” It wasn’t big news for West Ham fans, as we had been heavily linked with Bony around that point, but it was a loaded statement to make shortly before Andy Carroll and Wifried Bony took to the field for West Ham’s home game against Swansea.It is tough to put the records of the two strikers up against each other, but for Sam to remind everyone it could have been Bony in claret and blue the week we put Bony against Carroll on the pitch was playing with fire.
It very nearly went wrong. Sam’s bold declaration seemed to be a poor one in the first half of the game. Bony won everything in the air for Swansea and was absolutely lethal on the break. After his goal, the Swansea fans sang a variation of “you should have signed Bony” and for a terrible 22 minutes, it looked like they may have been right.
Fortunately Andy Carroll was having none of it. Perhaps Sam’s comments and the Swansea fans’ chants had struck a nerve because suddenly, with something to prove, there was no room in the game for Bony as our giant Geordie scored a brace to help West Ham win 3-1 and move up to third in the table for 24 hours (it still counts.)
It was a tremendous show of determination and proof that Sam made the right choice.
After all, I’m glad we signed Carroll over Bony. We might not get a goal from him every week– in fact, we probably won’t– but he brings far more to the side than goals. He is, without question, the best defensive member of our forwards. The amount of times that man gets back to clear balls out of the box and then manages to get forward as we attack is impressive.
We need his presence and his stature too. In his first proper game back, he won more aerial duels than any other Premier League player this season. He holds the ball up wonderfully, and today he started to turn with the ball brilliantly as well.
Yesterday, we got to see Andy Carroll; yesterday, we saw an incredibly powerful argument for Carroll and Diafra Sakho to be the main strikers over Enner Valencia, Mauro Zarate and Carlton Cole. Carroll’s goals were excellent, and his presence was threatening throughout.
When it comes to West Ham, I want a player who not only looks overjoyed at scoring, but who runs over to hug and thank the staff and manager after he does. The Swansea fans were wrong; we shouldn’t have signed Bony.
Instead, we managed to let the right one in.
Andy Carroll will still be banging in goals for us against Swansea for the next few seasons. Wilfred bony will also be banging goals in against them, they are a stepping stone as we would’ve been so it’s a no brainer. as long as the big fella can put his injuries behind him we have the more effective player imo
So one game where Carroll played well and Bony played just ok means we made the right decision? Bony was cheaper and has been consistently good for Swansea. Carroll was monumentally overpriced and has been injured for large parts of his time with us. Don’t forget, our fantastic start to the season has been in the main with Sakho and Valencia in the absence of Carroll so let’s not be silly and pretend we would be lost without Carroll because we wouldn’t.
Bony would probably have been a very good signing for us and certainly a less injured one thus better value for money. Also, Valencia and Sakho are both incredibly good for us defensively and work just as hard as Carroll if not harder to be honest. I’m glad Carroll found the score sheet and performed well overall but why after one game do we have to get carried away about his performance. We’ve been without him all year and we’ve been absolutely fantastic, let’s not forget that.
I like this article. And more importantly, I like you. UP THE FOOTBALL!