Friday 27 March 2009

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 bĂȘte 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.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

George Paris ?? Shaka Hislop ?? Gelnn Johnson ?? Danny Gabidon ?? sorry but i dont buy your argument

Stig said...

Di Canio was black...

Hammersfan said...

George is the closest, I thought about him. But George was always the smiley, happy stereotype, a sort of mascot as well as a player. That makes me sound racist and I don't mean it in that way. Just that he was "cute", a trier, somebody the fans kind of adopted despite his colour. You quote Shaka, what about David James? He was never loved was he? Better keeper than Green but no doubt who of the two is the more popular. Glenn Johnson was only with us for five minutes. Ask thirty thousand West Ham fans to name their favourite right back and I bet Stewart comes first, Repka comes second and Johnson comes nowhere (assuming Bonds is regarded as a midfielder). Fair enough given what the three gave to the club. Anyway, I knew people would focus on this rather than on Cole. That is my view on why he is not accepted, that is not the main thrust of the article. West Ham fans bristle if accused of racism but coming from the East End myself, I don't know anybody from my family who isn't racist. So, how do YOU rate Carlton?

jdhammer said...

What about Rio - Look at the reception he gets when he comes to the Boleyn?

Ilunga is already a crowd favourite

Just because some of our favourite players aren't black doesn't make you a racist.

On Cole he has improved tremendously this year, but still a, long way from the finished article

Anonymous said...

An interesting perspective but I think you are way off the mark on this one Fanno. Most of us would agree that he has improved greatly this year and is certainly now more appreciated by the Upton Park faithful. He is work in progress and part of Zola's "project" but is there much more improvement to come from Cole or is he now at his peak? From my point of view he is still a frustrating player. He has had a good season and scored some lovely goals none better than the one at Newcastle but his first touch can still be awful and he still misses to many chances for me. Yes he does get into goal scoring positions but he is by now means a clinical finisher yet. He has been a miss for the last 2 games, we certainly miss his workrate and we are quite a small side without him in it. Finally when he does miss a sitter all I moan about is the guy that has missed it and don't even think about what colour he is.

Hammersfan said...

Spot on with Rio JD. It maybe that he is the only truly excellent black player who has played for us. I do think it is all a little more subtle than the bare statement in the article appears to suggest. I'm not saying the fans hate or even dislike somebody because he has black skin; what I'm suggesting is that the same level of affiliation isn't there. Maybe it just comes down to when a white kid is emulating a hero, shouting a commentary out loud as he crashes home a goal. Can he see himself as black or does he automatically yell out Ashton rather than Cole? Are we looking for our own image out there on the pitch? Blonde haired players always looked odd to me because I have dark hair; is that it? Or are there darker forces at work? One of Cole's "biggest" critics on the mordant org has regularly spoken about how Britain has gone to the dogs because of immigration and he was passionately critical of Anton too - I can't help thinking that his racism shape his appraisals of players, consciously or otherwise.

Anonymous said...

No idea where this view-point has come from! Like most fans I have never thought too deeply about Cole being black & could care less what colour he is when playing for West Ham or England. You do come out with some irrelevant rubbish IMHO!

Hammersfan said...

LOL So what do you think of Cole the player? And why dont you think he is universally admired by West Ham fans? Can he really be an England player and simultaneously a yard dog? I know there are some dire one cap wonders but Capello saw enough to invite Carlton back for a second go. Thanks for the contribution! All Honest Opinions welcome!!!!

Basildon-Iron said...

Fanno why do you have to find a racist undertone in anything you seem to think you are a minority in? Has it ever occured to you that people give Cole a lot of stick becuase for the first half of his spell at West Ham he was no good, his goals to game ratio was appaling and he did not put in a shift when he got the nod. Cole will never be a consistent goal scorer in my opinion he went on a good run a while back and then before you know it he's gone 6-7 games without a goal. I'm not saying the work he puts in is not there now but at the end of the day strikers are remembered (and paid) for the amount of goals they score. Carlton Cole doesn't score enough. His all round game has improved massively over recent months and for that both him and the west ham coaching staff should be applauded. For me Cole will never be a regular England player and he will never be a regular goal scorer...thats it, the colour of his skin is irelevant and I think if you want to get this forum up and running and out there you need to lay off the incinuation that anyone who critices Cole is a racist or theres any sort of racist undertone in it. Look at Coles record for the clubs he's played for, he's never exactly set the world on fire.....yet!!!

Hammersfan said...

In point of fact Bas, Cole has 3 in his last 10 appearances, maintaining his one in three ratio - and that is in a run of 10 that includes games away to Arsenal and at home to United! As I say in the article, Cole's scoring ratio is one in every three starts through his West Ham career (20 in 62). Why do these stats surprise people? What is the underlying prejudice?(I'm not limiting that word to the racist sense.) It isn't easy being the bit part in and out understudy and that was Carlton's role before Ashton's injury. Why hark back on the past anyway? You judged Noble on this season and compared it unfavourably with the past. Why not credit Cole with improvement? I'm not talking about you here, but it seems to me that some don't want to admit the improvement. As with Anton, some passed judgement early doors and don't want to admit to being wrong. I had my doubts about him but I have come round - the guy plays for the shirt with real passion and verve. Would Ashton play through injury as Cole has recently? I doubt it. We know he isn't Shearer but he is a darn sight better than some are giving him credit for. It may well not be latent racism for all, but it is for some. Probably 60% of the fans are 100% behind Cole. Why aren't the other 40% in his corner? Some might genuinely doubt his ability but why are those same fans so willing to give Sears and Noble a vote of confidence? You saw on the mordant org all those calls for Sears to replace Cole. How stupid do those people look now? I know Sears and Noble are West Ham boys but Cole signed a contract extension whilst Ashton was fit - that shows his commitment to the club in my book.

Anonymous said...

This is a disgusting post
How dare you insinuate people dislike Carlton Cole because he is black, why even bring his race into the equation, who do you think you are?
I'm not the most anti-racist person in the world, infact I'm not really anti-racist, I can have a laugh and a joke without being offensive but this is just a terrible post, god knows how some people think about this

Hammersfan said...

What is "not the most anti racist person in the world" meant to mean? You are a bit racist? 50% racist? Two thirds racist? One percent racist? Odd. I am not a PC merchant mate if that is what you mean - there is a difference between humour and malice. See my other comments above. I am puzzled by the reaction to Cole and asking questions, that's all. Why the luke warm support? Why do some seem almost to want him to fail? Anyway, again the main thrust of the article is not being addressed. How good is Cole?

Anonymous said...

it is right about ashton bein 3 times the player ashton if stayed fit wud be an england regular and cole is poor really different class

Hammersfan said...

Will Beano ever get and stay fit? Why don't you rate Cole?