Hammers captain Kevin Nolan has dramatically stated that he has helped save Andy Carroll’s football career. Nolan is hoping that the big man can silence the crowd at St James’ Park today where the Hammers take on Newcastle.

The two are great friends and most people remember that Carroll had to spend a 2 year spell away from football after being charged with assaulting a former girlfriend. Although the charges were later dropped, Carroll was also fined £1,000 for an assault charge at a newcastle nightclub.

Nolan was Newcastle’s captain at the time of the incidents and as part of the bail condition, Andy Carroll was ordered to live with Nolan. The West Ham captain remembers that the big man emerged as a great cook which was very handy while Nolan’s wife was in Liverpool!

Nolan said of the incident:

“At Newcastle, if something goes on, it gets exploded 10 times and with Andy, it was magnified 1,000 times.
He was on assault charges but that sort of died quite quickly afterwards and all the charges put up against him were suddenly dropped.
It was because he’s 6ft 5in, he’s got long hair, he stands out in a crowd. I knew he just had to keep himself out of those situations, and since then he’s learnt so much. He’s been to Liverpool where he lived on his own with his girlfriend.
There is a different lad standing there in that dressing room now. There’s a man there now who can look after himself. You’d have to ask Andy if I’ve had an influence on that, of course I’m going to say ‘yeah!”

Nolan had a terrific 2 and a half year spell at the Toons and scored 30 goals which made him a firm favourite with the fans. West Ham manager Sam Allardyce reckons that Nolan has been the best signing he’s made at West Ham and cannot for the life of him understand why he hasn’t received an England call-up. The Hammer fans are with Sam on this and he has been a truly awesome influence on the younger players.

Kevin Nolan revealed:

“All I’ll say is that I was born in an era where we’ve had probably the best midfielders England have ever had in terms of goal scoring.
It does hurt I haven’t got the call but it’s something I’ve got to live with — I’m a big boy.”

Today’s kick-off is at 15:00 and we want to see more of that Nolan experience and courage on the pitch today. If anyone can spur on Andy Carroll and the younger stars to awesomeness, it’s got to be Kevin Nolan! Good luck lads!