Premier League: 10 Great Players Soon To Be Out Of Contract

5. Carlton Cole

The West Ham man may not have reached the heights you might expect of a former Chelsea player, but he has occasionally proven that he can be a valuable asset. With just 12 goals in a combined 70 appearances for Chelsea, Wolves, Charlton and Aston Villa - he has gone on to score almost 50 goals for The Hammers in a little over 200 matches. But his contract is up at the end of the season, and with apparent interest from Reading and Norwich in January, it is very possible that he could be heading out of Upton Park. He's not the goalscoring machine type of striker, but he tends to fit in well with Big Sam's style of play and even bagged an important goal in the 3-1 win over Chelsea in December. But that strike was one of just two goals in the Premier League this season, the other coming in the home defeat to Everton just before Christmas, so it's easy to see why the West Ham management might want to shake things up a bit. Perhaps a change of scenery is exactly what the lad needs. Whether it's Reading, Norwich or a move to Stoke that failed to come off a few years ago - strikers need to be contributing with goals and aren't likely to get rewarded with new contracts if they don't provide them.