Ground Hog Day As Carroll Rumoured To Be Available For El Pel

Just when things were progressing swimmingly for the Hammers, a reminder of how fragile their precarious early progress is has arrived in the form of one Andrew Carroll being lined up for a potential return to the first team. A lot has happened since Carroll picked up his obligatory three to four month injury as the precursor to his and West Ham's season, is it going to be another Ground Hog Day? Usually the big geordie's return from injury is heralded by a fanfare that culminates in one or two impressive performances that usually involve him jumping higher and more powerfully than virtually any other player, these efforts are invariably rewarded with a goal or two which are swiftly followed by paper talk of an England call up 'to give the team something different'.

Gareth Southgate is due to announce his squad soon, but the England manager knows that the only Hammer he is really interested in is Declan Rice, Southgate like many others admired Carroll's once in a blue moon attributes but knows to avoid Carroll and his perpetual injuries like a barge pole. In a way Carroll's relationship with the club and it's fans is similar to a couple who have a bad relationship caused by 'cheating or beating', the transgressor shows remorse and promises to be better and try harder, only for the inevitable relapse to occur. Only this time Andy Carroll is not an intrinsic member of the first team and has never been viewed as one, we believe Manuel Pellegrini's instructions to his assistants have been to get the player fit ahead of being able to flog him to a team that are really desperate in the January transfer window!

We are in no way suggesting that Andy Carroll deliberately injures himself, we would mention that his 'health' regime was poor to say the least, particularly before he settled down with his current partner, it is just that Carroll is a race horse not a dray horse and as such his body cannot withstand the impact inflicted on it by his massive leaps in the air and subsequent landings. It is a shame to admit or accept. but Andy Carroll is one of football's 'nearly men', he had the ability but not the body! Dean Ashton is another example of 'matter over mind' although his injuries were severe and career ending, whereas Carroll's have been constant and perpetuated in the early days by a lack of healthy regime.

The club has progressed superbly under the guidance of Manuel Pellegrini and has reached a point where instead of looking back and trying to make the most of bad mistakes the club is moving forward and looking to the future, and that future doesn't include Andy Carroll, who no matter what, is not going to make a miraculous recovery and become injury free, the best medical people in the World have already tried and failed to get the ex-england striker fit for more than a few weeks at a time.

Talks regarding a new contract for Carroll have unsurprisingly not been scheduled, the club will just be looking to get anything they can out of his sale in the January window ahead of his contract winding down as it is in it's final year, Carroll was a 'vanity' signing in a similar vein to Joe Hart, at least Hart wasn't injured 90% of the time! West Ham have moved on, now it's time for other people to buy our has been's and failures instead of the other way! Time to go Andy - Ed