WEST Ham Manager, Sam Allardyce, would love to build his team around Andy Carroll next season - and maintains signing the England forward on a permanent deal from Liverpool must be the club’s “main priority” over the summer.

The 24-year-old played the final match of his season-long loan in the 4-2 win over relegated Reading at Upton Park, where Captain Kevin Nolan netted a hat-trick.

Carroll was a thorn in Reading’s side all afternoon, despite not being able to add to his seven goals to mark his recall to the England squad for the friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil.

The striker posted a message on Twitter last night saying how much he had “enjoyed every minute of being at West Ham.”

However, with Liverpool set to hold out for a £17million fee for their 6ft 3in frontman, and Newcastle and Monaco also said to be monitoring the situation, the Irons look in for some tough dealings.

Allardyce, though, believes having Carroll on board next season would provide the perfect platform on which to build from their creditable 10th place after avoiding joining Reading back in the npower Championship.

“If we can start with Andy Carroll that would be a great achievement for us as he can only get better and better,” Allardyce said.

“Then we build around that in terms of how we want to improve next year, with better quality. It is our target to make it a permanent situation. Hopefully we can get somewhere in the near future to do that.

“It’s our main priority. There are negotiations between the club and Liverpool. We have to pursue it to the very end one way or another and we will find out as quick as we can if it is a yes or a no.”