A NUMBER of Chinese clubs “fell in love” with injury-prone Andy Carroll during recent negotiations.
One of them liked the pony-tailed hitman him so much that the Daily Telegraph reported a tentative £32million bid for the West Ham striker.
For all that the 28-year-old former Newcastle and Liverpool hitman remains in East London with the Chinese Super League transfer window now shut.
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Tianjin Quanjian, Hebei China Fortune and Shandong Luneng Taishan were the teams thought to be keen on the explosive Geordie, who can be lethal on his day but who all too often is unfit.
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic has given the inside story on how Carroll – currently picking up £130,000 a week at the London Stadium – came to land on the Chinese clubs’ radar.
Stressing that West Ham always wanted to hang on to their powerful target man, Bilic explained: “You know how much I rate him and how much we rate him. We want to keep him.
“As far as I know Chinese clubs sent representatives to watch a game and apparently they were watching other players but fell in love with Andy.
“He heard the story and I suppose he would be flattered, it’s nice to have options and good opinions about you from other clubs – but we haven’t talked about it.
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“We haven’t been bombed with offers from Chinese clubs so I haven’t exactly been waiting for the window to close.
“It wasn’t like we had three, four or five offers from China for our players. It didn’t affect our training or relationships.”
Carroll had scored four goals in five games – including a brilliant Scorpion conversion to floor Crystal Palace – before a groin injury kept him out of the draws with Watford and West Brom.
He is now back in training and in line to face Premier League leaders Chelsea on Monday.
Overall, Carroll, 28, has been a disaster since he moved to the Londoners from Liverpool in 2013.
In nearly four years with the club he has failed to complete a full season.
Despite Bilic's assertion that the Hammers want Carroll to stay, his wages remain a bone of contention given his availability and last month SunSport revealed that chairman David Sullivan authorised his sale at a board meeting before negotiations began with potential new clubs.
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