‘Roy would be scared to do it because of the reaction he’d get. He would be accused of a direct approach and people would be on his case.
‘But playing Andy does not make you a long-ball team, it just gives you extra options. He is good on the floor and others can play off him.
‘Andy and Wayne Rooney together would work very well, and it would benefit Wayne, who is often carrying England’s hopes all on his own’.
After another influential showing by his prized attacker against Wigan Athletic this weekend, Allardyce described Carroll as being ‘critical’ to his club’s ‘moving forward’.
Not everybody has been so enamoured by Carroll’s recent renaissance. The respected Mail on Sunday sports writer, Patrick Collins, used his column this week to decry the idea of ‘the stone age man’ taking on the mantle of England’s centre-forward.
While he pursues his trade in the East End of London, Carroll is liable to comparison by many a misty eyed football correspondent with recognised gentlemen of the game such as; Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters, and when a knock-out blow is sought – Bobby Moore.
Predictably, Collins draws that particular comparison. He contrasts the purveyors of that peculiar phenomenon, the ‘West Ham Way’, with the ‘raw’ and ‘limited’ battering ram currently filling the Irons’ striking jersey.
Given his recent contribution to a series of positive results and performances for the Upton Park outfit, those men whose blood ran claret-and-blue would surely be appreciative of their side’s chief protagonist. Even as a world class centre-back, Moore would not have relished a direct battle with the rough-and-ready Carroll.
The image of the £35m man as a one-dimensional and pre-historic target-man is as inaccurate as the perception of Allardyce as a footballing relic who relies on his team’s capacity to ‘whack-it-long, chase-it-hard’, as Collins suggests is the case.
Some of Carroll’s link-play when fit, – and it his injury record which provides the biggest question mark over how celebrated a career the player will enjoy – has been terrific. Matt Jarvis, Ricardo Vaz Te, and Kevin Nolan have all developed a wonderful understanding with their front-man.
We need to rewind only three weeks to the Hammers’ home win over West Bromwich Albion to be reminded of Carroll’s multiple skill-set. A characteristic leaping header scored from a set-piece was bettered later in that match by an exquisite first-time volley, applied to a ball dropping over his shoulder from deep, and placed across Ben Foster in the visitors’ goal.
As a demonstrative and fiercely combative force, Carroll finds his actions under the constant gaze of match officials. That, believes Collins, is reason enough to nip any England prospects in the bud, regardless of Carroll scoring a vital goal during the most recent major tournament which his country contested – against Sweden at the 2012 European Championships.
Application of that selection benchmark would deprive Hodgson of his golden boy, the exceptional Jack Wishere, due to the Arsenal man’s occasional propensity for a reckless midfield lunge.
It was Carroll who, in four May days last year, exposed the flaws creeping into the previously unbreachable John Terry’s game. As a second-half substitute in the F.A. Cup final the forward gave the Chelsea man a severe buffeting, and scored the goal which gave his team hope in a clash in which they were previously second-best. When Chelsea succumbed at Anfield later that same week, Carroll took centre-stage with a masterful striker’s display.
Furthermore, Liverpool reached their Wembley final thanks to Carroll’s decisive header – won at the expense of the monumental frame of Marouane Fellaini. (It is also worth remembering that the Reds were trailing that semi-final against their city rivals Everton, and seemingly set for defeat, when Suarez clinically capitalised on a lapse by Sylvain Distin – a task he made look far easier than was the case).
If West Ham decide that financial restrictions will be a barrier to securing Carroll’s permanent signature, the striker will be coveted by some serious Premier League outfits. Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, and home-town team Newcastle United would surely be keen. It isn’t stretching credibility to believe Manchester City might regard Carroll as an upgrade on Edin Dzeko.
Rodgers will be relieved that the men above him at Anfield appear unmoved by the outside exhortations to shorn their manager of his greatest asset. It is within the young boss’ gift to be in charge of a squad which has in its number two of the finest Premier League strikers. Carroll showed enough in his 19 months at Liverpool to suggest that the remarkable transfer fee which took him to the North-West needn’t be an enduring subject of derision.
Brendan Rodgers and Roy Hodgson are at different ends of their management careers. What they have in common is a pressing requirement to win matches – and access to the burgeoning craft of a man who will help them in their pursuit of that aim.
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