Monday, 25 January 2010

Is Cole Being Rushed Back Too Quickly?


Another day has ticked past and we still, as I write, haven't landed a striker. Ruud proved that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink (even with a £100k a week bribe) whilst the two Bennies have not yet said "It's goodnight from me and its goodnight from him". As for Gudjohnsen, well your Eidur is as good as mine as to whether or not he will actually join.

So we go into the first of a series of crucial six pointers without a new signing to play up front it seems. The solution? To press Carlton back into action. Now, quite apart from any ring rustiness, I do hope that Cole isn't being rushed back too early. We made that mistake with both Ashton and Behrami, and it would be disastrous if Cole's recovery was set back because we he was picked in panic when he wasn't fully fit. The nightmare scenario would see him play for 20 mins and then limp out for the next three months. It wouldn't be the first time would it? Where is Dyer right now? Silly question! But then look at Parker, sitting with an ice pack on his hamstring having been withdrawn early from the Villa game after being selected for the Tottenham game when clearly unfit.

Fingers crossed Cole plays, scores and has no reaction from the injury. The trouble is, with the paper thin squad, I suspect Zola and Clarke will also be trusting to crossed fingers rather than sound medical advice; just as they did with Parker.

10 comments:

John said...

What you say is fair enough, but what choice has Zola had? should he put inexperienced kids in when points and league position are so desperate? Hopefully now the new owners will strengthen the squad so that he can be more cautious with the returning semior players. Old John

TBI said...

By end of Jan we could actually have too many strikers.

2 mystery ones
Franco
Cole
Hines
Nouble
Stanislas doesn't count, he is officially an attacking midfielder.

John said...

Yes but I don't think Franco likes playing in the cold weather which leaves Cole and maybe two mystery ones, the others I don't think are really up to premiership standards yet. John

T.I.S said...

TBH TBI lol I don't think at any point in this season will we have all our strikers back at the same time. However if we did, Hines and Nouble shouldn't be in contention as first teamers yet. Hopefully if we do have three first team regular strikers, Franco, Cole and McCarthy, this will encourage Zola to play 2 up front.

Absolutely no talk of a right-back, bit worrying!

John said...

Is there anybody in the world who wants to read anything contribvuted by Anonymous?

Hammersfan said...

John, he is a revoltingly tiresome racist idiot. Sadly, we count quite a few of those amongst our fan base.

dan said...

parker was wasnt unfit he just played but was withdrawn so he wudnt get injured there could be plenty of reasons about the icepack

dan said...

parker was wasnt unfit he just played but was withdrawn so he wudnt get injured there could be plenty of reasons about the icepack

Hammersfan said...

Dan, he was unfit for the Spurs game. Zola asked him if he could play and trusted to Parker's word despite his reporting a hamstring problem. The icepack was because he still hadn't fully recovered, which is why he was taken off.

Stani Army said...

To be fair, they did pencil in Cole's return date for late January a while back. Let's just hope nothing happens.

I think muscle problems tend to niggle and hang around even though they are probably the less serious ones. I don't think Cole's was muscular.