West Ham stepped up their summer recruitment drive yesterday with the acquisition of Andy Carroll from Liverpool for an undisclosed club record fee. The 24-year-old returns to Upton Park after a relatively successful loan spell last term and arrives on a six-year deal, with the Hammers having the option of extending his contract by a further two years:
Carroll is Sam Allardyce’s third signing of the close-season, following left-back Razvan Rat and keeper Adrian to the club. With Liverpool rumoured to be ready to splash the cash on the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Iago Aspas, he was deemed surplus to requirement up front and, with the 2014 World Cup looming, has decided to reunite with Allardyce in order to boost his international chances ahead of next year’s competition in Brazil. Speaking to the Hammers’ official website, Carroll went on to say:
“It’s fantastic for me to be here. I really enjoyed last season, and that shows in me coming back and making it permanent. The fans, the lads and the club itself has been great to me, and what I wanted to do was come back here and play football. Since the end of the season I’ve had a lot of time to think, I’ve missed it and that’s why I’m back. Getting promoted the season before last, then finishing where we did – we did great, and it can only get better for us. The way the club’s being run, obviously getting the new stadium and everything like that, it’s only going up.”
The History
Carroll’s career began as a 17-year-old back in 2006/07 with a handful of sub appearances for Newcastle. Struggling to establish himself as a first-team player, he was farmed out to Preston North End the following season, where he notched once in 11 matches. Returning to his parent club for the following campaign, he again failed to nail down a regular role and managed just three goals from 14 appearances as Newcastle slipped into the Championship.
The drop to a lower division afforded Carroll the chance of regular game time, though, and he finally thrived as the Tyneside team quickly achieved promotion, racking up 17 goals and 12 assists over 39 matches. Returning to the top-flight as the club’s main forward, Carroll was a Fantasy football phenomenon in the first half of the 2010/11 season, producing 11 goals and seven assists in just 19 appearances before he was snapped up by Liverpool on the final day of the January transfer window.
His time on Merseyside has been a bitter disappointment, though – from a total of 44 league matches, Carroll found the net on just six occasions, with three assists also accrued. With his style of play clearly at odds with Brendan Rodgers’ tactics, the big Geordie reunited with Allardyce at Upton Park last term and, after a slow start and knee problems, eventually settled, producing seven goals and four assists over 24 league appearances.
The Prospects
If Carroll picks up from where he left off towards the end of the previous season, the omens look good for the Hammers. Although he notched just a single goal and assist over his first 10 appearances, his displays improved significantly after he returned to action from the afore-mentioned knee issue.
In his final 13 appearances for the Hammers, Carroll had a hand in 10 of West Ham’s side’s 18 goals – finding the net six times in addition to supplying four assists. At home, in particular, he was hugely effective, producing attacking returns in six of his final seven matches at Upton Park – a clear sign of his increasing consistency in his new surrounds, with an average of 6.5 points per home game over that period.
In terms of tactics, Allardyce will no doubt retain his lone forward formation, with Kevin Nolan providing support as the most advanced central midfielder and Matt Jarvis supplying plenty of crosses from the left for Carroll to feed off. Given that Nolan is set for a price hike across the Fantasy games after last term’s scoring exploits, Carroll may well be an option if his initial cost is relatively budget friendly.
Having started the previous campaign at 8.5 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) as a Liverpool forward, a drop to around 7.5 or 8.0 looks on the cards – a realistic price for a first-choice forward at a mid-table side. With previous mid-price favourites such as Christian Benteke, Rickie Lambert and possibly Romelu Lukaku expected to escalate in price, our Fantasy targets will be reassessed and could once again focus on Carroll.
Yesterday’s release of the 2013/13 fixture list also looks promising. With home games against Cardiff, Stoke and Everton allied with trips to Newcastle, Southampton and Hull, the Hammers have been afforded one of the kindest opening schedules of any club. Providing the initial pricing is reasonable, then, the big Geordie certainly done enough over the final few months of his loan spell to indicate he may well be set for a resurgence as Allardyce looks to build upon last term’s solid tenth placed finish.
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