Ex West Ham star Andy Carroll has made a brutally honest claim about Maxwel Cornet after visiting his old club.
West Ham fans were excited by what Maxwel Cornet might bring to the side when he was signed for £17.5m from Burnley in the summer.
With his pace, energy and ability, Hammers fans were hopeful he could make a big difference.
But with just two months left of the Premier League season and West Ham fighting for their lives, the Ivory Coast star has made just one start for the Hammers.
Cornet was out for five months with a rare calf injury sustained on his full West Ham league debut back in October.
He had barely featured prior to that following his summer arrival at West Ham.
David Moyes has been very careful not to rush him back since his return to training. He came on as a substitute in both legs of West Ham’s 6-0 aggregate Europa Conference League cruise against AEK Larnaca.
It had been so long since he had been seen in the claret and blue that West Ham fans serenaded Cornet with a witty gallows humour chant.
Cornet was an unused sub in the win over Southampton at the weekend. But with eight games to come throughout April, he will surely come back into the picture sooner rather than later.
One man who knows all about spending time out through injury is former West Ham star Andy Carroll.
Carroll was popular among West Ham fans for his full-blooded displays and undeniable commitment during games.
But his time at West Ham very much mirrored much of his career in that it was seriously blighted by injuries.
Across seven seasons from 2012 to 2019, Carroll played just 142 times for West Ham scoring only 34 goals.
That was an average of just 20 games per season and less than five goals for every campaign he played in the claret and blue.
The big man still keeps a close check on his former team, though, it seems.
And ex West Ham star Carroll has made a brutally honest claim about Cornet after visiting his old club.
Carroll, who is now playing for Reading aged 34, says he regularly attends games at the London Stadium and has been back for visits to watch West Ham in Europe too.
And he noticed something about Cornet which bodes well – despite having not known much about the attacker previously.
“As a striker, it was good to see Michail Antonio do so well but he clearly needed help, while David clearly needed another forward or two, too,” Carroll told the club’s website.
Ex West Ham star Andy Carroll makes brutally honest claim about Maxwel Cornet after visiting his old club
“If the service is right anyone can score goals and West Ham have certainly got the players such as Maxwel Cornet, Jarrod Bowen, Saïd Benrahma, Pablo Fornals, Manuel Lanzini and Lucas Paquetá, who are all capable of creating danger.
“Provided those balls into the box are good enough, then the forwards will thrive off them.
“If I’m honest, I’d never noticed too much of Maxwel when he was up at Burnley.
“But from what I’ve seen of him, he looks to be a very good signing. I was at the UEFA Conference League play-off tie last August and he made some really exciting runs down that left-wing and created quite a few chances.”
Let’s hope Cornet can do just that and be like a new signing for us for the run-in.
Cornet has clearly caught Carroll’s eye and impressed the striker. There is no praise like that of your peers, so it says a lot.
It’s just a shame West Ham don’t have a prime and fully fit Andy Carroll in the box to take advantage.
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