West Ham’s Andy Carroll “problem” could easily extend until the end of the season unless a shock buyer emerges this summer.
And if so, the Irons will have emerged as an all round loser on the Geordie coveted by Sam Allardyce and brought to the club at the time on what WERE mega wages.
The Irons are ready to let the striker go but after paying £17 million in a transfer fee plus agents fees etc, and paying him a wage at in excess of £80k a week, they accept that they have problems in all directions.
He has played just 40 games in two seasons for 10 goals and were his name not a household name, the club would be struggling to get more than £8m – £10 million.
With just a season left, even were a club to come in, they are unlikely to pay the the sort of wages he currently commands even were they to accept the fee.
As a result, from a purely pragmatic point of view the striker could sit tight and negotiate better personal terms as a result of being on a free next summer when clubs would be far more interested in a free transfer.
And that would mean after spending a total of around £35 million over five years on transfer fee and wages, the deal may have been the worst ever with him able to leave without the club recovering a penny!
A Carroll miracle would be handy right now.
Imagine if we didn’t beat west brom in January though. I think it was a turning point in both seasons, Pardew could have gained some momentum and Moyes certainly had it in his locker to completely flop after this game that we should have won on paper.
I think this contribution could be worth a lot more than the 35 million stated above- also the Stoke result! He should go nonetheless but never forget these goals
I echo what ahammer says, I am certainly not a fan of his salary or injury record but his goals have been crucial to our survival or league position previously, £17m is now nothing in relative terms for a player in this country so just have to suck it up, Pellegrini might even find a way to get more out of him this season than the others did, he certainly hasn’t been averse to using a big man up top in the past.
It’s a tricky one?On his day AC is a handful and the opposition do not like playing against him also he will always give 100% and does his fair share of coming back and defending.
So you can see i am quite a fan of him when he is fit and there’s the rub,will he stay fit?You could sell him to another club and he stays injury free or we could keep him and he gets another big injury.
I haven’t got a crystal ball!
He hasn’t been consistently available since we bought him, what has changed for anyone to believe that will be different this season? Between a rock and a hard place springs to mind!!