You're ignoring the fact he scored 15 is 43 the season before then and the fact that he's scored 48 in 210 during his time at West Ham, even with one bad season? One bad season doesn't make a bad player.
As tigermaul has posted the squad naming rules on the squad thread and we can't now change our squad until January, I declare this thread officially dead. RIP.
Its pretty simple isnt it? If his fitness is lack of condition and not due to injury, then we cant afford to turn down an ex England international who is only 29/30. Players are tarts these days, a bit of a Brucey arm round his shoulders telling him we want him and he believes he should be in the England team and we've got a good player in a months time.
Not according to this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2409853/Carlton-Cole-fit-sign-West-Ham.html "Despite the fact the transfer window is now closed, clubs are still permitted to sign players who are still out-of-contract.
We've already put our 25 man squad in. So even if we sign an out of contract player, he can't be registered, even if we lose a player, that player is still part of our squad. The only exception as far as I know is GK in emergency situation.
Sign them, but not play them, at least according to the Mirror... Clubs can make changes to their squad but only during transfer windows, so once submitted the clubs will be stuck with that squad until January. Only in exceptional circumstances, such as a goalkeeper crisis, can changes be made outside the window, and then only if the Premier League board approves the changes.
Given that we have fully allocated the 25 places of our squad, this probably means a) there is no one out there FAT (including COLE) that SB fancies or b) thats it for the finances until we shift a few
He'd surely be worth a 1 year deal just so we boost our attacking options at the moment and get Long or another striker in January.
Can't have too many strikers. Especially when Survival is so valuable. 2 of our strikers out (Aluko & Graham for example) and we'd be in a bit of a pickle...
So you're saying pay his wages for 4 months so we have a striker in January, in case there's no other strikers available & he's been snapped up by someone else?
The first thing everybody seems to look at when signing a striker is "how many goals did he score last season" but although goals are important then there are other factors involved such as-how well does he hold the ball up and bring others into play, will he add height and strength to the team, has he got pace ect. I am not just talking about Cole here but strikers in general because lets be honest even a 10 goal a season striker seems to cost a fortune these days. Sometimes signing a striker who dosn't score many but compliments another forward well and brings the best out of him. Anyway having said all that i think it looks as though we are going to have to get through to January before we bring in anyone. Lets hope we are in a decent position so players will still come. At the moment we are going to have to go with a forward line which only as one forward who as played in the premier league before lets just hope the others cope well and get us enough goals
Emille HESKEY being a classic case, couldn`t hit a cows arse with a shovel, but the like of OWEN etc put him up there as their favourite forward to play with given his workrate and how he created space for them.
don`t forget Gedo, Koren and the scoring maching that is Robbie Brady, add 4 or 5 from set pieces from big Curtis and then the odd bomb from Figueroa and we`ll be challenging for Europe !
Question: If either Fryatt or McLean - or both - go out in the loan window, does that free up 1 (or 2) places in the 25-man squad?
I'm sure this has been covered but what is he doing now - retired? I was a big Heskey appreciator but I'm not suggesting we go for him, just interested.
