Carlton Cole Stats
DOB: 12/10/1983
Age: 30
Position: Striker
Previous Club: West Ham United
Previous Division: Premier League
Transfer Date: 14/10/2013
Reported Fee: Free Transfer
Depending on who you’re talking to, the re-signing of Carlton Cole on a three month contract, a little over four months since he departed the club on a free transfer, is either an embarrassment – a sign of a shambolic transfer window -, or the club doing what the set out to do.
Back in June, if Carlton had signed a new contract, we’d signed Andy Carroll, and added Mladen Petric, I think most people would have been pretty pleased with that business. Whilst the end result is that we have all three of those players, I think it’s safe to say that the order and manner in which these transfers took place is typical West Ham United!
Despite the fact that many feel this signing unnecessary given the outstanding strikerless victory against Spurs the other week, the addition of a Carlton Cole does a couple of important things.
Firstly, it gives us another game plan. We can now play with the ‘False 9’ in Morrison and Diamé. We can play with a small striker in to feet with Petric. We can now play with a big man. We can now pair little and large and go with two up top. Whether he’s the best striker in the world or not (he’s not, by the way) Carlton gives us another string to our bow in Andy Carroll’s continued absence.
The second thing that this transfer does, and this is something that 99% of fans will be pleased about, is that it pushed Modibo Maiga one place further down the pecking order to start as a lone striker.
So what can we expect from Carlton?
Head to West Ham United Stats for my full analysis of Carlton Cole – including a look at his West Ham United goalscoring record, and what he offers that Maiga doesn’t.
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