Benni McCarthy: The bee's knees or busted knees? That's the question that has to be asked

In so many ways, Benni McCarthy's much-hyped move to Orlando Pirates is exactly what the South African Premier League has been crying out for.

An experienced, Champions League-winning South African professional arriving back in Soweto's District 18 eager to end his career with a bang. Bafana Bafana's all-time top-scorer joining South Africa's treble-winning Champions promising to become the first man to win Champions League medals in both Europe and Africa.

On Robert Marawa's excellent Discovery Sports Centre (you can't miss it from 6-7.30pm every day on www.metrofm.co.za) Benni told us on Tuesday night: "I'm not here for a holiday, I'm here to give something back. This is not my retirement plan, I want to get out there and score goals for Pirates."

In my story which ran in the Cape Argus two Saturdays before, I expressed exactly those sentiments. Hoping the new, svelte Benni would return to South Africa for one final goal rush. You can read it here: http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2011/07/mccarthy-in-no-rush-to-secure-new-club.html.

Since then, Benni has left Ajax Cape Town where he was "getting back to full fitness" and, barely 24 hours after being seen with Pirates' supremo Irvin Khosa at last Saturday's Carling Black Label Cup final, he signed his lucrative two-year deal and inherited the No17 Buccaneers shirt. Cue wild celebrations nationwide, except for jealous fans of Kaizer Chiefs, Ajax and Sundowns.

So everyone’s happy. But the worrying aspect is this: Benni gushed similar sentiments when he left Blackburn Rovers to join West Ham United for £2.5m (R26m) in January 2010. He called it his “dream move” and promised he had plenty of goals left in him at 32. But when push came to shove, he went down injured after a single game (a brief appearance in the defeat against Burnley), put on weight, was fined twice and missed the World Cup in his home country, dropped by Bafana Bafana despite claiming to be fit.

While his agent Rob Moore insisted he was "back to his fighting weight" after the World Cup, West Ham then left McCarthy out of their playing squad at the start of the year and despite a goal-scoring trial at Queens Park Rangers, the Hammers offered the 33-year-old £1.5m (R16m) to cut short his contract at Upton Park earlier this year.

The British newspapers had a field day, describing McCarthy as “a flop” and “a fat misfit”. And now I've got West Ham fans blowing bubbles over the concept of McCarthy being the next big thing in the South African Premier League. Some of them even tuned in to his live interview online at MetroFM on Tuesday night. They were flabbergasted to hear the man who failed to score a goal for relegated West Ham promising the world, telling us: "My love for football is back, I can't wait to start playing."

But he may have to wait. After Wednesday's open session with his new team-mates, Pirates tell us McCarthy is not fit. That he won't play in the opening MTN8 clash against Santos on Sunday at Orlando's Super Stadium. He needs "more tests".

Officially, his new boss Julio Leal said: “It was a good deal for Benni to come back home, to play under the eye of his critics. He’s a player who’s got international experience. He played at the highest level and scored goals there. He needs to work on certain aspects to be fully fit. We will do tests and take a decision on whether he plays on Saturday.”

I put up the picture above on Facebook and Twitter and took some fierce stick for suggesting the blood tests he was being subjected to on Wednesday should have been taken before a 33-year-old who couldn't get fit at West Ham for a year was signed on a two-year contract.

I’ve been accused of having something personal against McCarthy. But, with player, club and fans in mind, I'm right. Nobody wants Benni to succeed more than me. Both my son and I wear Orlando Pirates jerseys with pride, happy to make the Buccaneers' skull-and-crossbones sign to friend and foe alike.

But has Benni had the full medical? Has he got another two well-paid years at the pinnacle of African football in him? I certainly hope so. Google “Benni McCarthy” and “medical” on google news and there are no results. The club won’t comment.

Why am I so concerned? Because I can't help going back to that moment in early February 2010, when a man called Kevin Keen, the former West Ham first team coach now at Liverpool, wandered over to me while our boys were playing football together in Buckinghamshire.

I asked Kevin, who had just attended my World Cup book launch in our village bookstore at Chalfont St Peter, if Benni would be fit to spearhead South Africa's World Cup challenge on home soil.

He grimaced and said: "Benni's not looking good. He has a knee problem. South Africa may be in trouble if they think he's going to be their major World Cup striker."

I wrote http://www.iol.co.za/sport/injury-set-to-rule-benni-out-of-world-cup-1.613865 on February 26 last year, nearly four months before the World Cup kick-off. His agent Rob Moore rubbished my story as "lazy journalism" and “pure speculation”. It wasn't. It was fact, as we found out on June 1, when Benni was axed by Carlos Alberto Parreira and I wrote this: http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2010/06/benni-mccarthys-world-cup-dream-is-over.html.

Now decide for yourself. Read those stories. Read the more recent blogs on McCarthy. Have a look at the picture above. Am I simply having a go at the great Benni McCarthy, South Africa's all-time top scorer? Or am I hoping he had a full medical before he put pen to paper at Pirates and that he will, gloriously, go on to lift an African Champions League medal to go to the one he won with Jose Mourinho's Porto in 2004?

Truth is, I wish Benni McCarthy all the best. He talks a great game, he has scored great goals, he will sell tickets all over South Africa this season. But that will only happen if the knee, originally injured while playing for Blackburn in 2007, stands up to the strain, his weight stays down... and he really is here to do the business, not enhance his retirement fund at the expense, ultimately, of the Buccaneers fans who pay to watch him and buy his replica shirt.

There is no hidden agenda. I just want Benni to go out with a bang. Not a whimper.

January Transfer Window Special: West Ham reject Benni McCarthy Set For Celtic Escape

South Africa’s top scorer Benni McCarthy has been offered a way out of his West Ham nightmare – by Celtic boss Neil Lennon.

Yesterday’s Glasgow Evening Times splashed with the story that McCarthy, 33, is being targeted for a move in the January transfer window by the legendary Bhoys, not to be confused with South Africa’s Bloemfontein Celtic, though both sides wear the traditional green-and-white hoops.

Celtic boss Lennon is “well aware of McCarthy’s availability” after his efforts to sign Spurs midfielder Niko Kranjcar broke down.

McCarthy would jump at the chance of playing at a packed Parkhead after a season of misery, diets and cushions with the rock-bottom Hammers in the Premier League.

McCarthy, signed from Blackburn for £2.5m by Gianfranco Zola in the last January transfer window, suffered a knee injury in his opening game for West Ham in February. Then his weight ballooned and the Cape Town-born striker missed out on selection for Bafana Bafana’s World Cup squad on home soil.

He returned to a series of lurid stories about his weight in the British press and was fined two weeks' wages by new club owner David Sullivan, who said: “I have a better Body Mass Index. And I’m 60.”

McCarthy worked hard to reduce his weight and has returned to the squad under new boss Avram Grant, but rarely makes an appearance ahead of Carlton Cole and a host of under-performing strikers. When he did turn out for West Ham last month, one British journalist described him as being “rusty” and looking like “something out of Acorn Antiques”.

Lennon is weighing up whether to take McCarthy on a loan deal until the end of the season or sign him permanently.

With Gary Hooper still missing for at least another month through injury, Lennon desperately needs a proven goalscorer - and McCarthy’s goals-per-game record would suggest he would thrive in the SPL, which is traditionally dominated by Celtic and arch-rivals Rangers. He has scored a record 31 goals in 79 games for Bafana Bafana and hit 37 in 109 at Blackburn. But his 34 in 74 games for Jose Mourinho's European Champions Porto really put him on the map. Mind you, that was back in 2003-2006.

Given the club’s Roman Catholic roots, even McCarthy’s surname fits the bill! His deal at West Ham runs until 2012 but with just six substitute appearances in the Premier League this season, his departure will not be a surprise.

Lennon is losing interest in 26-year-old Croatian Kranjcar, who is out of favour at Spurs over the £6m price tag. McCarthy would be available for about a third of that.

McCarthy’s age will not be a problem. Canadian Dwayne De Rosario, 32, and former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg, 33, are both training with the squad pending deals.

Lennon, who himself signed a 12-month contract in the summer, said: "I think it's fair to say we are dealing in the short term but that's not to protect me.

"I'm doing what I can to get players who can win the championship for the club. It's a big year for us.

"I've brought in the likes of Beram Kayal, Joe Ledley and Efrain Juarez to look after the club's development in the next few years.

"But I also want a couple of kings in the team who can talk others through the games at times."

Celtic are currently top of the Scottish Premier, a point clear of Rangers – but their Protestant arch-rivals have two games in hand before the traditional Old Firm derby between the two sides at Ibrox on Sunday. Third placed side Hearts are five points adrift of the Glaswegian duo.

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on Twitter)? See www.nealcollins.co.uk.