Maybe West Ham should consider selling Andy Carroll

West Ham have reportedly rejected three bids from Chinese clubs for England striker Andy Carroll

According to reports from Sky Sports, West Ham have rejected bids from Chinese trio Tianjin Quanjian, Hebei China Fortune and Shandong Luneng for striker Andy Carroll.

The transfer window closes for Chinese clubs today. However, it seems that the Hammers are not interested in selling their star striker, well not today anyway.

The club from east London may well consider selling the England international in the near future.

Carroll is so injury-prone

Andy Carroll cost West Ham £17million in 2013 when he arrived from Liverpool, after a season on-loan at the London club. Even before he joined the Hammers Carroll had struggled with fitness and injury problems.

The most games he has ever played in a Premier League campaign for one club came in his initial loan spell at West Ham, when he made 22 starts and two substitute appearances.

The 28-year-old has struggled to sustain his fitness for a long enough period to gain any momentum at West Ham. He plays a couple of games, before breaking down and spending weeks or months on the sidelines through injury.

When he does play he tends to perform well and get the fans hopes up that he may well stay fit in the long-term. If he strings a few appearances together then there is the inevitable talk of recalls to the England squad and being an important asset to the Three Lions.

However, he is once again sidelined for the Hammers and is doubtful for Monday night’s game against London rivals Chelsea. Unfortunately is now a familiar story to West Ham fans.

An unstoppable force on his day

The reason people get so excited when Carroll is fit is because he is such an unstoppable force on his day. The striker is such a major threat to opposition defences and even a big help defensively on set pieces due to his aerial prowess.

I would imagine that no defender likes marking the former Newcastle striker when he is on form. During this season he has made just nine starts and three substitute appearances but has scored six times.

Sadly due to the number of injuries Carroll sustains, his best goalscoring campaign in the top-flight still remains his first half season in the Premier League at Newcastle. The striker scored 11 goals in 19 appearances for the Magpies before moving to Liverpool in the January transfer window for £35million.

It is a crying shame that Andy Carroll’s body and fitness lets him down so often. He is such a good player when he is fit. It just seems a waste of his talent when he is sidelined through injury.

Cut their losses in the summer

West Ham have struggled to fill a striking void usually left by Carroll being injured. The 28-year-old would be the first name on the teamsheet every week if he was fit. The Hammers have not been able to find a striker who scores goals on a regular basis in recent seasons.

We all know what happened with Italian international Simone Zaza. He flopped badly with the Hammers, only to find his form on-loan at Valencia in La Liga.

I suspect that Slaven Bilic and the West Ham supporters are not willing to give up on Andy Carroll just yet. However, hoping that the striker will suddenly shake off the injuries and be a player that plays every game is not good enough for the Hammers.

In the summer if they can recruit a striker that knows where the net is better than where the treatment room is, maybe the Hammers should cut their losses with the striker.

No doubt if Chinese Super League clubs are still interested they could receive a big fee and re-invest it in a player that is unlikely to be sidelined for half of the season.

Should West Ham consider selling Andy Carroll?