Carroll will soon find a club – Bruce

STEVE Bruce insists Andy Carroll – once close to a move to Coventry City – is ‘in the best nick he’s been for years’ as he prepares to consign him to the free transfer market.

The 33-year-old former Liverpool striker has scored three times in 15 appearances for West Bromwich Albion in the second half of this season, having led the line for Reading before January. He has shown he can influence games and, just as importantly, stay on the pitch. He has played 1,622 minutes this term, more than the three previous campaigns combined (1,458) at Newcastle United and West Ham.

But Bruce says the striker will be a victim of squad balancing at The Hawthorns and is sure that he won’t have a problem with finding a new club this summer.

He told BBC Radio WM: “I need to strengthen in other areas rather than number nines. Andy has done really well for us. He’s in the best nick he’s been in in years and I’m sure he’ll get fixed up with a club.

“But we’ve got five centreforwards and six centre-backs. We have an imbalance in the squad and we need to use the wages to strengthen in other areas. I know how popular Andy was in the dressing-room and it was a really tough decision to make, but I’ve got to think of the overall balance.”

Coventry fans may recall that Carroll was linked with a move to join the Sky Blues at the start of his career at Newcastle, shortly after City had been taken over by Sisu, with Ray Ranson in charge in 2007.

“If I had been given the tools, I could have got Andy Carroll, Jordan Henderson and Jack Cork for less than £2 million,” he later revealed.