Andy Carroll’s ongoing injury problems have become a bad joke.
His continuing absence is an issue of huge frustration to everybody with his comeback being delayed beyond most reasonable expectations.
ClaretandHugh has trawled through the various public pronouncements from the manager and player following the striker sustaining the knee issue in the Europa League qualifier.
At the time Slaven Bilic announced to BBC Sport: “Hopefully it will be four weeks. It’s nothing major. But it’s very sad for him and us.”
Fair enough we all thought before Slav said a little later: “Andy Carroll picked up the injury in Romania and I didn’t notice he got injured. Originally we thought it would be four to six weeks.
“Now it is longer than that and it is slower than we expected. He is progressing but it is not the speed we wanted. He is working hard.”
Into October with the six weeks already having been overshot and one National newspaper claimed he wouldn’t be returning until the end of October.
Carroll then tweeted: “My recovery is going great. This was a 6-8 week injury so everything is going to plan.”
That – being generous – would certainly have seen him return certainly by the end of October before chief medic Stijn Vandenbroucke told the official site”Carroll has been out since suffering a knee injury at Astra Giurgiu in August,”
“The rehabilitation is taking longer than our initial prognosis. However, I would reiterate that he is making steady progress and continues his rehab.”
That six to eight weeks has now extended to three months and it really is time someone told us what precisely is the problem.
Forget all this will he won’t he crap let’s just say it as it is! He’s a liability ,a total waste of money and has delivered next to nothing in his career. A six year contract given to him based against nothing and on 85k a week wages for sitting on his ass or going out on the ****! Sick of reading about him and sick of him of being defended by fans because he’s unplayable on his day blah blah blah. Fact is he’s a shower of ****e who we’re lumbered with nothing more 🙂
I’ve said it several times in the past GW – revisiting because I thought I needed to
It’s a farce isn’t it Hugh? Don’t know about you but didn’t want him in the 1st place and still say to this day he’s probably one of the reasons why we haven’t attracted other strikers because they’d either have to play 2nd fiddle to him or because they’ve demanded the same wages as him which the board won’t entertain!
Worst deal ever GW and then he comes back and we change the system…three games getting used to that then he’s injured again. Dreadful situation
Hi Hugh,
I agree with your original article and concern, that upon return, Bilic might resort to his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, with Andy as his favorite lone-wolf striker.
Sakho is currently our best striker, and I truly hope that Bilic realizes this.
Another, which I can’t fathom, is Bilic’s semi-delusional ideation, with Carroll’s ability and how he will be the panacea for all of West Ham’s problems. Even when Andy has been fully fit, he has looked very slow, somewhat unstable and weak on the ball (leaving aside the hat-trick he scored against Arsenal, last season.
Bilic is continuing to make some serious strategic and tactical errors..
The last, occurred in the game against Spurs, last weekend; we were leading 2-1, and then, at the 71st minute, he may have panicked when changing the formation to a 5-4-1 set-up.
Unfortunately,the formation was not correctly formed.
All four mid-fielders, ended up occupying positions on the left flank and right flank respectively. In addition, Zaza was left far too deep, totally isolated from his team-mates!
The result was that an ‘enormous vacant space’ sprung to life in the center of the park, which Spurs took advantage of. The pressure on the defense became too much, and we ended up losing a game, which we did not deserve to lose..
Sadly, it could have all been averted; if he wanted some alterations, Slav could have made some minor tweaks to the existing 3-5-2 formation, which the players seemed very comfortable with’ this would have involved bringing back the strikers closer to the half-way line, and using Obiang as a right-back, and leaving Antonio as a right-sided mid-fielder. Had he chosen this path, or something similar, he would have reduced the chances of Spurs equalizing, and improved our chances of scoring a counter-attacking 3rd goal. In addition, why on earth, did he replace Payet with Nordveit in the 86th minute?
Depending on the outcome of the next 2 games against Manchester United, our manager could be skating in very thin ice..
Sad, because Ithink he is a good manager , and a decent man.
However, it seems he is going through a period of low-confidence, which is affecting his managerial duties!
COYI
Hugh mate this situation went ‘beyond a joke’ a long long time ago.
But come the summer we won’t buy a proper good striker because we will be told by Gold that Carroll is over his injuries & is going to score a hatful next season.
We will also hear as GW said muppets telling us he is unplayable on his day,.The day he leaves our club will be fantastic for me.
Alfie he was a lovely parting gift from our beloved slug of a manager because he didn’t want Bony! I bet the Bin Lids are still laughing about it but don’t worry we could be doubling it up with a Sturridge signing 🙂
I think Carroll is a decent player but played up front with a fellow striker. Apart from that his injury record is horrendous and if we are to progress we need to let him go and the owners need to stop being naive and buy players without a proven injury record. Why they bought him in the first place is beyond me and many others as we wanted Bony.
A lot of fans forget that the China Doll held off signing for us to wait for a better option but didn’t get one and when he finally did sign he was bloody injured! But lets give him our full support because he’s unique, unplayable blah blah blah
Again ! Is he on drugs? If he had any other job he would have been sacked by now.
No he’s just another overrated English forward built up by the media because of his price tag for delivering next to nothing over 10 years! Our very own Francis Jeffers all hype and nothing more.
If everyone is honest what has he really done since his Newcastle days? Liverpool were well & truly robbed, but then we were conned, all down to Fat Sam for me, never forget when he returned from injury with Sam and the team was doing well and the wheels came off just to accommodate him, for nothing more than the salary we pay to him!
It is time for the Two Dave’s to hold their hand up and say we were conned, we made one big mistake, (and then a few others last close season) it is time to offload him this January, we have become a joke.
I was always concerned after his first season on loan, and could not believe the contract length we gave him and the salary? Very few will want to buy him but he has to GO! whatever we can get.
Jaybs spot on mate but like a turd that never flushes we’ll be lumbered with him 🙂
I wonder how many injuries he would have if he was on a pay as you play deal
Him and Curtis would have probably negotiated a 50k per game deal on pay as you play Mick with a certain % going to the greatest tactical manager from the Black Country 🙂
Ray I get your frustration but I don’t think anyone knows anything and most of the farce about AC is the continual bull**** that surrounds him! If there is more I’m just like you and would want to know but I’m guessing it’s been swept under the carpet as it always is when it comes to this total waste of space.
Guess I shouldn’t have replied to Ray the Hammer then 🙂
🙂 Way out of line
The Carroll story has all the hall marks of the hooey we were fed when his namesake Roy ‘caught his studs in the nets during training in the morning and injured himself in a freak accident’… when was actually shouting at cars,relaxed as a newt in Loughton High Street on the morning of a game. I suspect the clue is in the ‘rehabilitation’ required. I love the bloke on his day but this is so far beyond a joke, in any other walk of like he would be saked. Time we manned up, cut our loses and bulletted him. We must move on.
Enough is enough with this clown. Pay off his contract and show him the door. He’s a complete waste of space. I accept he gets injuries, but he’s another sick note. However, why does it take him so long to recover from them?
Bin him off.
COYI
The only reason I can think of for all the smokescreens and false dawns is that he has some kind of unrelated problem. I can’t think why else the club would stick by him and drip feed us nonsense about his recovery.
I’ve posted this before, I am friends with someone who is closely related to one of our ‘former’ first team players…’AC gets away with murder and half the time isn’t even injured’…
What is lacking is clear explanations (detailed medical jargon included) from the medical staff at the club to state the reality of what is really going on…… rather than the c”ontinuing with rehab” nonsense which works with regular injuries but is inadequate when dealing with Carrol
Ditch him and give the kids a chance, Martinez when back up to match fitness should be on the bench and Fletcher needs to be given an extended run in the team either with Sakho or another forward COYI!!!
We have all grown used to Carroll repeatedly going for rehab, from which he never seems to emerge. The only pictures we see of him are with a pint in his hand. The guy’s a waster. Let the Chinese have him on a free. Maybe some of that traditional Chinese medicine will work on him, or maybe he will still remain a p*sshead.
The clubs handling of carroll has been terrible. When Big Sam was in charge they mentioned he required injections to get through the last stage of training. Bilic has recently mentioned he is having injections at the moment. As a physio myself, injections are not a good thing unless absolutely necessary as they mask pain. Which means in controlled environments like training he doesnt feel pain and can get through training sessions, but then comes a match or game and he pushes himself, jumps into players etc etc. and because he doesnt feel the joint as much he is even more prone to injuries with the way he plays! And so the cycle goes on he gets injured again…
He doesn’t want to play, he’s a ****head (on drugs? What ever) get rid, bring in some players who wish to play for the club, pay the youngsters better money and bring some through. Paying shed loads of money for players who see us as a club who pay massive fee’s and wages so they can put their feet up and rake in the money is not working. I hate to say this, but look at the SPUDS, they pay their star’s far less than us, the lesson is, DON’T LET THE PLAYERS TAKE THE ****.