Andy Carroll - He's back

[Brogue]

A Christmas Carroll

[Royalwaster]

That’s a great bit of business to be fair. Till mid jan is a very clever move. Completely zero risk and if we can get a few games out of him between now and then, then fair play. And considering he will have done a medical before signing the club must be confident that he will be up to speed fairly quickly otherwise it just would t be worthwhile. If he impresses we extend till the summer.

After signing a hattrick in each of his games with us, he can then join Bournemouth in mid-January!

[Snowflake Royal]

oxf*rd me we're a desperate shambles aren't we.

Medical team on some sort of pay per treatment deal?

Pointless. He's not mobile. He's always unfit and he hasn't scored goals regularly in years.

We don't play long ball, he can't run the channels and when we do rarely bother crossing its usually over hit and rubbish. He's not going to be passing it through the eye of a needle or beating players often even if he does make it on the pitch occasionally.

Clarke just score 2 goals. Why not save a wedge, a bed and give Ehibhatiomhan a game or three first.

[Barney]

That’s a great bit of business to be fair. Till mid jan is a very clever move. Completely zero risk and if we can get a few games out of him between now and then, then fair play. And considering he will have done a medical before signing the club must be confident that he will be up to speed fairly quickly otherwise it just would t be worthwhile. If he impresses we extend till the summer.

That my friend is absolutely spot on. Sums it up nicely

[Barney]

oxf*rd me we're a desperate shambles aren't we.

Medical team on some sort of pay per treatment deal?

Pointless. He's not mobile. He's always unfit and he hasn't scored goals regularly in years.

We don't play long ball, he can't run the channels and when we do rarely bother crossing its usually over hit and rubbish. He's not going to be passing it through the eye of a needle or beating players often even if he does make it on the pitch occasionally.

Clarke just score 2 goals. Why not save a wedge, a bed and give Ehibhatiomhan a game or three first.

Assuming you are on the wind up. Not sure if you have noticed, we currently DON'T have a striker that can score. At least the club are
trying to do something about it.

[Snowflake Royal]

oxf*rd me we're a desperate shambles aren't we.

Medical team on some sort of pay per treatment deal?

Pointless. He's not mobile. He's always unfit and he hasn't scored goals regularly in years.

We don't play long ball, he can't run the channels and when we do rarely bother crossing its usually over hit and rubbish. He's not going to be passing it through the eye of a needle or beating players often even if he does make it on the pitch occasionally.

Clarke just score 2 goals. Why not save a wedge, a bed and give Ehibhatiomhan a game or three first.

Assuming you are on the wind up. Not sure if you have noticed, we currently DON'T have a striker that can score. At least the club are
trying to do something about it.

Nor can Carroll. But Ehib might.

[Barney]

oxf*rd me we're a desperate shambles aren't we.

Medical team on some sort of pay per treatment deal?

Pointless. He's not mobile. He's always unfit and he hasn't scored goals regularly in years.

We don't play long ball, he can't run the channels and when we do rarely bother crossing its usually over hit and rubbish. He's not going to be passing it through the eye of a needle or beating players often even if he does make it on the pitch occasionally.

Clarke just score 2 goals. Why not save a wedge, a bed and give Ehibhatiomhan a game or three first.

Assuming you are on the wind up. Not sure if you have noticed, we currently DON'T have a striker that can score. At least the club are
trying to do something about it.

Nor can Carroll. But Ehib might.

It is just that for someone who is "always unfit" he has played over 350 games.

Why not have him AND Ehibhatiomhan as options ? Play one, stick one on the bench. Our bench recently mostly looks packed
with kids...so surely another OPTION can't be a bad thing. And also, he isn't going to cost a fortune....simple, sensible short term deal.

Like most of the other comments so far, I can't see this as a bad thing at all. Nothing to lose.

[morganb]

Why mid-January? Just guessing that:

He will know if he can handle the "football-family life" balance ok (in an interview he said he didn't want to spend time away from his children in Essex and ideally wanted a club he could commute to)
He will know if bigger clubs (like Bournemouth) are willing to offer a better deal if he impresses
He will know if he wants to keep playing or retire and start up a plumbing business
We will know if Puscas is going or if his form has improved
We will know if Joao is fit
We will know if Carroll is any good/has stayed fit
We could see if anyone better is available to us in the transfer window
We should know what the EFL will allow us to do regarding transfers

I guess we will have the option to extend if he is any good and he is happy to stay.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

This is about as sensible as PSG signing Sergio Ramos.....

[Snowflake Royal]

Assuming you are on the wind up. Not sure if you have noticed, we currently DON'T have a striker that can score. At least the club are
trying to do something about it.

Nor can Carroll. But Ehib might.

It is just that for someone who is "always unfit" he has played over 350 games.

Why not have him AND Ehibhatiomhan as options ? Play one, stick one on the bench. Our bench recently mostly looks packed
with kids...so surely another OPTION can't be a bad thing. And also, he isn't going to cost a fortune....simple, sensible short term deal.

Like most of the other comments so far, I can't see this as a bad thing at all. Nothing to lose.

You know that's an average of less than 30 games a season over 12 years and he's 32?

And you know he's scored about 5 goals in 4 years? He makes Puscas look prolific these days.

[WestYorksRoyal]

This is a zero risk signing. Can't make our attacking options any worse, short term and affordable. And may just make a big difference if he can get a bit of form.

[Hendo]

This is a win-win, IMO. Club have been shrewd offering a deal until Jan. If it doesn’t work out, we shake hands and part ways, with minimal disruption, if it works out, he gets an extension and we get a motivated player who would be playing well for the rest of the season. He’ll want to impress to get an extension.

Saw someone post Jason Roberts’, who was a couple of years older, stats on Twitter (I think) before he joined us, and they were worse than Carroll’s in the 2 years prior to signing for us and that worked out pretty well.

[Notts Royal]

Fits the bill in terms of being “injury-prone”. But at least we’ve been sensible & ensured it’s only a short-term deal

[Winston Biscuit]

I want to call him Big Andy. Can we call him Big Andy?

[Brogue]

I always thought he was really tall but wiki tells me he's 6ft 4 which I'm surprised at.

[Sutekh]

That’s a great bit of business to be fair. Till mid jan is a very clever move. Completely zero risk and if we can get a few games out of him between now and then, then fair play. And considering he will have done a medical before signing the club must be confident that he will be up to speed fairly quickly otherwise it just would t be worthwhile. If he impresses we extend till the summer.

Good, should be match fit by mid January.

[Uke]

Time for a Mod to move this to the TB

[CountryRoyal]

I do find it amusingly ironic, that in the season of arguably our worst injury crisis ever, we have signed an infamously injury prone player.

You couldn’t make it up.

[Hendo]

I do find it amusingly ironic, that in the season of arguably our worst injury crisis ever, we have signed an infamously injury prone player.

You couldn’t make it up.

On the flip side, our historically most injury prone player is having the season of his life at the moment…

[Stranded]

Interesting* and will be happy if it is confirmed today/tomorrow - would imagine he may even be stuck on the bench against Forest on Saturday.

.

More likely 3-4 weeks of decent training first. Can't see them wanting to risk breaking him the first time he steps on the pitch. Mind you, given how many of our players seem to be made from fine bone china he might, by comparison, look like he's made of Titanium!

Given the length of the initial deal, will be very surprised if he is not at least on the bench come Saturday.