How Good is Carlton Goals?

Now this is one to get debate raging. Listen to some, and you would believe Carlton is the clumsiest yard dog this side of Dowie & Small; listen to others, including Capello, and he is an England striker. How can one player provoke such opposing views? How on Earth can we have a player in the England squad who a sizable chunk of our fan base seems to think is, at best ordinary, and at worst plain crap? Are England strikers really that thin on the ground?

Cole's detractors will point to a poor goals per game ratio and his inability to slot it home when through one on one with the keeper. Listen to them and you will hear that Ashton is three times the player Cole will ever be, even whilst spending every winter flat on his back in the treatment room. Ashton scores goals, Ashton has quality, Ashton is naturally more gifted. Yarde yarde yah. Does Ashton come in any other colour? We have him in noire!

And sometimes I wonder if that is the problem, it's not just that Carlton is an ex-Blue, he's black and blue into the bargain. Think of all our classic bête noires - Ince, Defoe, Reo-Choker - and (fat Frank apart) they are all a blacker shade of pale. Is the luke warm acceptance of Carlton down to latent racism, a hang over from the banana throwing Clyde Best days? Just as it is easy to identify the colour of those the fans most love to hate , so it is just as hard to think of a black player that the Upton Park faithful have taken long term to their hearts. A roll call of West ham favourites? Moore, Hurst, Peters, Bonds, Devonshire, Brooking, Stewart, Ludo, Dicks, Ward, Di Canio, Behrami, Collison, Green, Upson... Your starter for ten, what do they all have in common? Curbishley acted in exactly the same way as Defoe when we were relegated, slapping in a transfer request and sulking until allowed to go by an infuriated John Lyall, but the Claret and Blue Klan were happy to welcome him back as manager. Bilic was calling Everton a "bigger club" than us before the ink was dry on the Everton offer, but you would have struggled to find half a dozen Hammers who wouldn't have had him as our boss before the appointment of Zola. The real traitors, it seems are black or fat in Upton Park folk lore. The fans tolerate the black players, but they don't take them to their hearts it seems to me. Even Ilunga has had his critics despite having a truly outstanding season.

So Cole perhaps should not expect to be loved, but can't he at least be admired? This season he has netted 9 goals in 25 Premiership games, better than one goal in every three games, and only one of those goals, against Bolton, has been in a losing cause. Without his goals we would be in real trouble because we would have nine less points now - and 32 points would put us deep in relegation trouble.

And it's not as if Cole has been netting ordinary goals that any old striker would put away. The goals against Newcastle and Wigan (both away) were right out of the top drawer. And remember he won us a penalty against Fulham into the bargain. This is in the context of a goal shy season with the team averaging just a goal a game since Zola has been in charge. Given that fact, for Cole to have accumulated 9 in the league and another two in the cups is impressive. And this scoring ratio isn't a recent phenomenon - he has netted 20 goals from 62 starts over his West Ham career, despite being an in and out understudy before this season.

And goal scoring is, by common consent, the weakest aspect of Carlton's game. He is not a Michael Owen, a natural fox in the box striker. Cole is a workhorse, a genuine target man who drops deep to link the play, holds up the ball before bringing others into the game and stands cheek to jowel with the John Terrys and Vidic's of this world, taking the bruises for the team. Listen to Kovac, he has said how important Cole is to the all round team play. Carlton's contributions this season have, in my opinion, been immense. Take the epic rear guard actions at Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Carlton didn't score but he did as much as anybody else to protect those clean sheets, defending from the front for 90 minutes and occupying both centre backs single handedly. But what do I hear from his critics? He missed a sitter against Chelsea and he never looked like scoring against either Arsenal, United or Liverpool. Amazing. I remember Owen, Shearer and Greaves failing to beat a keeper when through one on one, but when they don't score, they get credit for getting into the position to score. "Give him three chances and he scores one!" the neutral pundit drools. When it is Cole, his own fans label him useless! Tell me, who else has been through one on one with the keeper this season? Bellyache missed a few but was still being hailed a hero before he packed his bags for City. And who else? Somehow Cole gets into that position when nobody else seems to manage it. He deserves credit for that, not criticism!

How good is Cole? Well I think he is twice the player he was last season. He is maturing, emerging as a quality striker who has a greater positional awareness and vision. His eye for goal is still a little myopic but as his confidence grows, so that aspect of his game will improve. Before his England call up, I predicted that Carlton would get more England caps than Ashton, and if he plays on Saturday he will be in pole position already, at least a season ahead of anything I expected. He isn't the finshed article yet, Zola, Clarke and Capello are still polishing him, but there aren't many better England qualified strikers around - and if the rumours about Juve were right, Zola isn't his only Italian admirer. We haven't had many players linked with a move to Juventus so perhaps the fans who refuse to see Carlton's strengths should take this as a hint that they are missing something. I, for one, rate Cole very highly indeed and am proud to have a West Ham number 12 in the England squad. The question is, will Beano be required to surrender the number 9 shirt next season to a player who takes the knocks, picks himself up and carries on playing? Carlton at least makes it onto the pitch, an example that it would good to see Beano follow.