Arsenal to swoop for Carlton Cole?

Chris Wright

6th, January 2010

6 Comments

PA-7982354

Marlon Harewood? Seriously?

Rumours in the papers this morning suggest that Arsenal will turn to West Ham forward Carlton Cole in a £9 million deal to solve their current striker deficiency, only if Nicklas Bendtner fails a fitness test on Friday. The Dane has missed the last two months due to a groin injury and if tests reveal that he will face a further period on the sidelines then Wenger’s hand may be forced during the transfer window.

One of the benefits a move for Cole would have over many of Arsenal’s other supposed targets would be that the England man would be eligible to play in the remaining rounds of this season’s Champions League.

Cole has been slowly improving over the last couple of years and, as the old Hleb-age goes, ‘no player gets worse under Arsene Wenger’. At £9m, I think Cole would represent decent value for money for Arsenal and also a respectful windfall for the cash-strapped Hammers.

If Cole does leave during January then West Ham are rumoured to be  ready to replace him with… drum roll… Marlon Harewood. The Aston Villa striker is known to be surplus to requirements at Villa Park and has recently returned from a fairly successful spell out on loan at Newcastle.

Harewood forged a decent partnership with Shola Ameobi and managed five goals in 15 appearances at St. James Park but the Magpies are unwilling to extend his deal, which may have something to do with the rumours of Jermaine Beckford being pretty high on their New Year’s shopping list.

A steadily improving, England international striker for a bit of a journeyman who is slightly worse in all aspects. Not the greatest trade-off in the world, is it?

Posted in Arsenal, Aston Villa, Miscellaneous, Newcastle Utd, Transfers & Rumours, West Ham Utd

Share this article: Email

6 Comments

  1. JMan says:

    Not a chance in hell of happening, we have a weakened strikeforce as it is and we aren’t about to make it worse when we are fighting for our Prem survival, and when are all you lot going to recognise that we do not have a financial crisis and have no necessity to sell.

  2. joshua says:

    @JMan: Sorry mate, but you’re delusional.

  3. Ollie says:

    Don’t think the Hammers have much choice – they will have to sell Cole and probably Upson too. Shame.

  4. Jolly says:

    Darren Bent – £16m
    Robbie Keane – £20m

    er…..Carlton Cole £9m – do the maths!!!

    West Ham could sell but not for a penny less than £20m

  5. Anon says:

    Carlton Cole at £20m, you’re havin a laugh mate, he’s ok but not worth anywhere near that much mate.

  6. Y.U.N.G says:

    I think Cole is a decent striker who can only get better esp under the supervision of Le Boss, so 9mil is a fair amount for him but we all know how this thing goes if Wenger is serious about him depending on how desperate he is pending Bendtner’s tests then West Ham might be looking to force his hand to spill a lil’ mo guap but we all kno they need the money.It wouldn’t hyrt having hinm as an addition to the Arsenal squad since he has pace and physical presence and that’s one thing that’s lacking up front Eduardo has been playing well but we all know he isn’t at his best and his legs just aren’t that fast anymo.Guess what we are top of the log

Leave a Reply