Carlton Cole knows what it's like to swap Chelsea for West Ham and the ex-striker has urged Tammy Abraham to follow in his footsteps this summer.
Abraham's future at Stamford Bridge is in major doubt under Blues boss Thomas Tuchel.
Despite being the club's top goalscorer this season with 12 goals, Abraham has not played for the west London outfit since February 20 - a 1-1 draw at Southampton.
As a result of his two-month omission, the 23-year-old has been linked away this summer and Cole believes a switch to east London would be 'perfect' for him.
'If he was to come to West Ham, I'd welcome him with open arms,' Cole told Bookmakers.co.uk. 'He would be the perfect person to lead that front line.
'We've got Michail Antonio there, who is a top player, but Tammy could come in and challenge for that place and that's what West Ham need, there's no one to challenge Antonio. Tammy would be perfect.
'I've always liked a technical big striker and he could be the ideal fit for West Ham because they can play a bit of football this team, and he'd fit straight in, especially if we can keep [Jesse] Lingard.'
Abraham has found himself behind Timo Werner, Olivier Giroud and Kai Havertz in Tuchel's striker hierarchy and Cole - who swapped Chelsea for West Ham in 2006, aged 23 - believes Abraham is now at a crossroads in his career.
'With Tammy, I think he's one of those players who needs an arm around him,' he continued.
'He needs the people around him to believe in him and he will perform if he gets that.
'When you look at his career to date, he's done fantastic. I wouldn't compare him to myself because he's taken advantage of his chances at Chelsea much better than I did.
'He had a good run last season when they had to play the youth and he done well, but now he has to figure out what he wants to do with his career.
'Does he want to go somewhere and be the main man? Does he want to go to Aston Villa for example, and be their top striker? I know they like him there.
'He could go somewhere and be the focal point of an attack, a proper first choice striker with no squad rotation, like Didier Drogba used to be for Chelsea.
'He's got to look at his career and his life at this point and think about where he wants to go with it. Does he want to stay with the big team or move on and make a name for himself and be a stalwart in the England setup?'
Moe-Km
476
Bruh people act like Tuchel completely ignores Tammy. he picked up a bad injury. relax
ChelseaFC_Addict
389
I have no problem with Tammy not playing currently in fact i have no problem with him leaving Chelsea FC. Tammy is not playing because the manager is not convinced by his work on the training ground and like Tuchel said he select players based on tactical reasons and according to the opponents he's facing ,clearly Tammy hasn't been fitting the profile. I am 100% behind Thomas Tuchel. I don't like lazy players like Tammy who think they're entitled for a spot in XI Tuchel is not Frank Lampard whose team was leaking goals left and right because he wanted to push his English political agendas. Listen Tammy must work hard to earn his place simple. Mason Mount was benched but he never looked down ,James was benched , Hudson odoi was humiliated and all these are English players but they worked their socks off so who is Tammy??? He must work hard
RaiyanHasib
332
Just before someone says that Tuchel doesn't give Abraham a chance. Remember at first, when Lampard used to play Abraham and he lost some form Fans started to complain that 'Lampard only supports English players, English players 🤮😫" but when Tuchel came and start benching him the same fans start complaining again why the English players (Abraham) are not playing ? So why doing hypocrisy at the first place ? 🤦🤦🤦