Carlton Cole appears to have tun into the same problems at Celtic a he did when joining the Irons as an out of contract player – fitness!
The former Irons striker is attempting to land a deal with the Scottish outfit but sadly things may look bleak for the 31 year old.
Without a pre-season behind him, trials at Parkhead have seen the problem emerge with coach John Kennedey admitting it’s tough getting him match fit in a short space of time.
He is reported as saying “He did well last week but he is short on football fitness.
“He has not done enough football training to get a proper judgement, but we know what he is all about I think when the club and his representatives speak together, then the deal has to be right if there is one to be done.”
A number of Championship clubs had been linked with Cole and Premier League outfit Bournemouth are the latest club to reportedly show an interest.
He takes a long time to get fit because he is all muscle,he must really get sloppy with his fitness when the season ends,
But they should have known he was going to take 6 weeks to be match fit,he has not played much football for 4 years only short sub games and no more than a dozen fall games in a year,
Good luck Carlton
I like Andy but at best he is a championship player now, in fact when we got him back due to AC injury he was already past his best . . .
He suffers a little from the modern footballer problem, too much cash in the bank . . . I think again he let himself spend more time at “faces” in Ilford than keeping fit . . . and again paying the price
With OS coming up next year could we not find a roll for him on the coaching side ? His commitment has never been in doubt and he obviously loves the club . Good luck Carlton ,
would be nice to see you back one day .
Poor guy shouldnt be going through all this if he had got his move to WBA.Instead that idiot Hippohead called him back,told Carlton he was needed then as Carlton himself stated ending up playing a couple of hundred minutes from January onwards so he couldnt have been needed that much.
I’ve never understood the outpouring of love and affection for Cant Control. He was about the worst centre forward I’ve ever seen in a West Ham shirt, summarised by the fact he’s the only man who jumps for the ball without his feet leaving the ground.
He’s consistently offside, slow to react to other players around him and generally gives definition to the expression ‘non-scoring forward’. I’m not interested or amused by our ‘key man’ banging the pitch with his fists in frustration because he hasn’t got a free-kick – I want a bit of presence and the odd goal.
We let him go once and should have realised when nobody else wanted him that there was a good reason. But we got desperate and Sam re-signed him. Pulis fancied a punt during one of the more silly transfer windows but that’s the only time another club was willing to take a risk. A year later and he can’t even get into an SPL (Sunday Pub League) side.
And before anyone gets all nostalgic about his ‘loyalty’, there was never a queue of clubs wanting to take him off our hands. His staying after relegation owes more to the good sense of everyone else in avoiding him than his devotion to us. Add in that he pocketed at least £1m a year for being, well, quite a bit ****, and I’m glad to have seen the back of him. As for coaching, what’s he going to teach – how to be offside?
The demon, if you do not understand why westham fans love Carlton Cole then you are not a true westham fan!
Then there are hundreds of ‘not real West Ham fans’ round me in my stand.
Being articulate and having a name that conveniently slots into a decent chant doesn’t make you a footballer. In nine seasons, he played 311 games for us and scored, I think, 55 goals, including 40 games in the Championship where a decent player should really flourish. That’s a goal every six-ish games, or one every nine hours. And record was equally as dismal before he got to UP, playing for Chelsea, Wolves, Charlton and Villa. In the season he joined us, he managed none in nine for Chelsea.
Call me names if you must, but settling – or even embracing – that kind of ineptitude shows how low we sank and simply isn’t acceptable. There were runs of games where a turd in a shirt could have done better. Possibly one played from time to time and we didn’t notice the difference.
Thanks The Demon, I no longer feel unique.
His commitment & loyalty was to his pocket not the club.
Oh he took a massive pay cut and he was still overpaid. If we didn’t have the injuries he would not have played anywhere near the 280 games.
Always running to where the ball wasn’t going to be by the time he got there.
Hats off to Nolan as he said fark this I’ m sitting on the bench, I’m off.
His one chance to WBA my arse. He has an agent, could of said get me a championship gig. I need to play, I need to prove myself but did he ever?
Mmm ? Sad outlook on life Demon . Without Carlton’s goal at Wembley we might still be in the Championship !
And with a proper striker we might not have struggled against Blackpool in the first place.
Seems Demon didnt get the nookie he was after lastnight from ‘er indoors.Woke up like a bear with a sore head obviously.Nevermind Demon,theres always tonight 😀
Blimey The Demon i admit i was never Coles biggest fan but i wouldnt put him down as amongst our worst forwards.But fair enough,your opinion,so good enough for me 😉
Off the top of your head – and leaving out the all-time worst John Radford – can you name five worse? You could say Marco Boogers, but he was just a four game novelty act. Other than that, Carlton’s in there for me!
What is about him that inspires such affection?
Benni Mcarthy
titty camara
Savio
Neil mellor
Mido.
Really wasnt hard.
And most westhams fans affection towards cole is not purley based on football. He loved the club, would do anything for us including taking a 50% wage cut when we went down, even came back afer we let him go.
He was never a top striker but is a top bloke. Will always wish him well wheter he goes.
OK, I walked into that by limiting it to five – but they’re all loans or never played more than a handful of times. Carlton played around three hundred games and was consistently awful. My frustration was watching a bloke who was only marginally better than me represent us year after year and not even managing to beat the law of averages in terms of goals.
And sticking around and taking a pay cut isn’t anything to be proud of when you shouldn’t have been there in the first place and nobody else wanted you anyway.
Well done him for getting away with it, but the reality is that for several years he was effectively the West Ham equivalent of Adebayor at Spurs – a striker paid for doing nothing.
Cole was sh#te,people loved him because he was wholehearted but it doesnt change the fact he was an underachieving player at best if you want to be kind about it.
Perhaps he didn’t sign Demons autograph book (: