Andy Carroll could be destined for a humbling return to Newcastle after a disappointing stint in the fabled Liverpool football kit.
But could he possibly move to West Ham?
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The Magpies made a loan offer to pay part of Carroll’s wages as well as having a buy-out clause at the end of the season. This has been rejected by Liverpool as it is thought the Reds would prefer to sell Carroll rather than loan him out.
Now though, West Ham have come in with an offer to buy the player for a potentially club record £17 million. Carroll doesn’t want to move to London, but would it really be such a bad move given that he may end up stuck at Liverpool?
Andy Carroll has been unsettled since new manager Brendan Rodgers came on the scene, and Rodgers was non-committal in discussing his future.
Carroll wouldn’t fit in with the style of football Rogers likes to play, he is a player who favours the long ball up front and in the pass-and-go game favoured by Rodgers, the likes of Luis Suárez will cut in front of him faster than the footballs that he will be belting about Anfield this season. This scenario is further compounded by Rodger’s purchase of Roma striker Fabio Borini, who is likely to partner Suarez to make up Liverpool’s front two.
Carroll started his career in Tyneside and became somewhat of an icon when he helped the fallen Magpies back into the Premier League in the 2009-10 Championship season, with 17 league football goals. Carroll’s strike rate whilst at Newcastle was 1 in every 3 games, scoring 33 goals in 91 appearances.
He failed to make such an impressive start at Liverpool though and couldn’t pull his football socks up to that strike rate all season, managing only a 1-in-5 rate of 11 goals over 56 appearances.
Encouragingly his best strike rate is for England, having netted 2 goals in 7 appearances. There is no doubt that the future is bright for Carroll’s international career as Roy Hodgson certainly favoured him in the Euros and he got England off to a roaring start with a spectacular headed goal against old rivals Sweden.
Whether or not he can shake off his disappointing form if he were to return to Newcastle is the big question mark hanging over his head.
When he was purchased by football legend Kenny Dalglish at the start of his reign for an immense fee of £35 million he became the most expensive British player, but Liverpool got a poor return for it and the only consolation was that Torres, who they sold for £50million, flopped at Chelsea. Both of these transactions came third and first respectively in the highest British transfer fees, with second place going to Sergio Aguero who went from Athletico Madrid to Manchester City for £38 million.
Carroll’s name doesn’t sit right in the list of the highest British transfer fees though. Torres, Agüero, Robinho, Shevchenko, Berbatov, and Rio Ferdinand. All of those names adorn the back of school football kits everywhere, they’ve all helped to shift millions of pounds worth of football accessories, and they’re heroes and icons worldwide.
But Carroll doesn’t fit in, and unless he can re-discover the form that made Liverpool want him so badly while playing for Newcastle, he will always be an outcast.
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