Arsenal, City and United should all pursue Andy Carroll

Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United all need reinforcements up top and should be moving for West Ham’s Andy Carroll

I’m prepared to be roundly criticized for the suggestion that these Premier League titans should be interested in Andy Carroll. After all, he has a terrible injury history and certainly doesn’t play the lovely style of football that most fans of elite clubs crave. Even his physical appearance is the antithesis of what Champions Leagues covet. Nonetheless, he’d be a terrific January purchase for Arsenal, Manchester City or Manchester United.

All three Champions League caliber clubs need to strengthen their attacks in January. Arsenal cannot possibly expect Olivier Giroud to shoulder the striker load alone as they march towards a Premier League title. Manchester City must find a replacement for the failing Wilfried Bony as their backup striker. Manchester United needs to find support for their starlet Anthony Martial and tired veteran Wayne Rooney. Why not take a punt on the talented West Ham striker?

After all, reports are that he’d be available for a fee of less than 18 million pounds. That’s pocket change for the aforementioned clubs. Furthermore, it’s a reasonable sale price for West Ham. They know he’s an injury risk and if they’re able to recoup most of their transfer investment for him, the prevailing wisdom says they’d be happy to let him go.

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Instead of focusing on what Carroll isn’t, let’s pay some attention to what he can actually bring to the table. When healthy (again, I acknowledge that’s a big concern) he is an absolute terror to play against. He is one of the best headers in the Premier League and create a goal out of absolutely nothing. He significantly enhances your chance of scoring on any sort of set piece. That can be extremely valuable in tense, late season contests.

He’s really a throwback sort of striker. He isn’t the type of man who these clubs would want to deploy for a full 90 minutes very often, but I’d argue that he is exactly the type of player they should be looking at as a Plan B. Not only can he provide you a dangerous target man late in matches, but he also works quite hard on the pitch as well. Again, ignore his hideous haircut and focus on what he actually accomplishes out on the pitch.

The West Ham striker has even been surprisingly good as of late. He has goals in his last two Premier League matches and it’s quite possible that he’s about to hit a positive run of form. All of these clubs would love to have a hot Andy Carroll coming off the bench for them as the season trudges on.

I realize that I’ve probably wasted my breath here and that many fans of the clubs I’ve mentioned will scoff at spending money on Andy Carroll in January. Still though, if their owners were smart they’d realize that a relatively cheap punt on the hulking striker could win them valuable points down the stretch.

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