Karren Brady writing in her Sun Football Diary confirms for the first time how much we paid for Andy Carroll. The figure she quotes is £19 million, much higher than previous estimates in the media of £15 million. Karren goes on to say that a report lands on her desk every day concerning the fitness of Andy Carroll written by five men. She hints that the club are unhappy about his treatment abroad saying he “was initially treated in Holland and the States but has now returned to east London and is recovering faster. It Just goes to show there’s no place like home!”
David Sullivan speaking to BBC Football Focus this weekend says “Had we known he would be out for this long, we would not have signed him,”
“We are not a rich enough club to deal with that. You know any player can get injured, but we can’t buy a player knowing he is going to be out for half the season.
“When we signed him we were assured by the medical staff that the very, very latest he would be back was 1 September. That would have meant he would only miss two league games. If you ask me the same question at the end of the season, I hope I will be able give you a different answer and say ’Yes, it was the right decision to sign Andy Carroll. He is a fantastic player and on his day he is unplayable. We love him and that is why we signed him. He is desperate to come back; he is sweating blood in training.”
“He has been all over Europe for treatment and he has begged me to come home, He has rung me up and said ‘It is doing my head in being here, I really want to get back as soon as possible, I really want to play’ Even now we haven’t got a date that he could be back. He could be back in three weeks, he could be back in six or eight weeks. I hope he might make a contribution in the next three or four weeks, that might be 20 minutes as a sub.He is not going to be quite the player he was at the end of last season until he has played some games. He is a fantastic player, don’t get me wrong, but I only wouldn’t have signed him because I can’t have that amount of wages and that amount of transfer fee on a player who isn’t going to play a minimum 20 or 30 games a season, hopefully 38 games a season.With Carroll sidelined, West Ham have slipped into a relegation battle and face Sunderland in a crucial match on Saturday. It has been an extremely difficult season, We are not playing very well, we didn’t anticipate it and it has gone far, far worse than we could possibly have imagined.The hope this season was to be mid-table right from the start, never to be threatened by relegation, to play the strongest possible teams in the cup matches and to try and get to a cup final – that was our aim.”
“Now we have a relegation battle and, although we are still in both the cups, I don’t know if the manager will want to play his strongest teams because it is vital that we get points.I am deeply concerned. Anybody who looks at where we are in the table and is not concerned are kidding themselves. I really believe Sam is the man for the job, If he wasn’t our manager he is exactly the type of manager you would be bringing in to be the manager. Where do you get someone better than Sam to do the job that is now necessary? If you asked me what kind of season Sam has had up to now, I would say disappointing. But let’s judge him at the end of the season. I think the Newcastle manager would have been sacked by most fans after a month of the season but now he is flavour of the month.” said David Sullivan
David Sullivan is on BBC Football Focus at 12pm today
Sam Allardyce also spoke about medical staff in his London Evening Standard Column on Friday
Big Sam said “What we can do, though, is excel at recovery. Our job is to try to nick a few days off everyone’s recovery period. If the medical staff say 12 weeks, can we get them back in 11? If it is six, can they be ready to play after five and a half?That’s what I need the medical and rehabilitation people to concentrate on. I don’t care if they drag the player in at 11pm if that is what is needed. Andy Carroll, for example, now has a career fitness plan. People are saying he is injury prone, so once he is back he has to show everyone that isn’t true. That means looking after his body in the same way as someone such as Ryan Giggs has done. Giggs cured his injury problems in his mid-20s by adapting his training — and his life.”
I understand the club were unhappy with the progress Carroll was making abroad with various specialists and have questioned the initial advice to send him to these specialists. What this means for the West Ham medical staff who gave that advice remains to be seen. As I will say is Watch this space!
