West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce admits having a centre-forward like Andy Carroll is exciting for him.

Carroll is on-loan at the Hammers from Liverpool.

Allardyce said: "There are not many of Andy Carroll's type. The sad thing for football is that it now seems unfashionable to have a big centre-forward in your team, which really disappoints me.

"It excites people when you see him rise above everybody else to get the ball in the back of the net.

"I've known him since he was a youngster. I could see the talent that he had and that talent flourished very quickly into Liverpool paying £35million for him.

"It didn't work there for whatever reason but he's such a young man, who's desperate to play football and do well."