Carlton Cole or as he is affectionately known in the Legends’ Lounge at the Boleyn Ground, “Can’t Control Cole,” is he really a Premier League striker. When you look at the stats, they don’t look very favourable. He has made 187 league appearances since joining us from Chelsea in July 2006 and has scored just 46 league goals. I am by no means a mathematician but even I can see this equates to just 1 goal every four games.
To rate as a striker competent at your trade, you should as a general rule be scoring around 1 goal every 2 games. It is eminently clear that Carlton does not measure up to the job specification. In point of fact, if he was working in a normal job he would be on performance review. This level of performance would never be tolerated. However, as Jimmy Greaves used to say, “football is a funny old game.” What other business sector would pay someone a seven figure salary for non-performance. Okay I concede, the banking sector will but not many others. Oh yes, I forgot, the Government.
Back to the serious stuff. It is doubtful if Carlton has really made the grade as a top class striker since joining West Ham. I know he had a period when he was called into the England squad but, in my opinion, this said more about the quality of the England strikers the manager had to choose from at the time.
Yes Carlton was top scorer at the club last season, but this was only to be expected as he was with us a full season and Ricardo Vaz Te nearly caught him up and he only played half a season in the claret and blue. In my opinion, he should have run riot last year but he fell woefully short.
If Carlton does not turn around his league form between now and Christmas I believe Big Sam will seriously look to off load him in the January transfer window while he still has a price, as his contract runs out in the summer. As Carlton said himself on his Twitter account after the QPR game on Monday he would pay good money to buy a goal at the moment.
I am not too sure that too many tears would be shed if Cole went in the next transfer window or indeed at the end of the season. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and admit defeat.