alpal78

'still behind the likes of Martins'....? Keep it up, I'm rolling around the floor here..! That was one of the best quotes of the day ! Why? This thread is all about opinions as there is no real objective way of measuring. I happen think Martins is a more complete player though obviously Carrol best him in terms of heading and ability in the air (mind you Martins was not too bad at heading either). Martins is physically faster, has better dribbling skills, ball control and can shoot with more power and potentially more accuracy including long rangers. These are all attributes that of course Carroll can improve on in the future but I'm comparing the Carroll of now vs the Martins that played for us. On a side note, are you able to debate like a grown up or are you only capable of throwing insults? Boo hoo someone said something bad about my hero Carroll, let me insult him quick, pathetic. If you don't rate Martins, fair enough but at least try to argue your point.

Currently not even close to strikers like Shearer, Ferdinand and Cole. Still behind the likes of Bellamy, Martins and dare I say Owen. In the future who knows, I still see him as one dimensional, but if he can add and improve the other aspects of his game, then he could become very good indeed. My bet is though that even in his peak, he wouldn't be as good as the first three names mentioned.

And still nobody can explain how they forced him to hand in a transfer request. of how anybody forced him to sign the bloody contract?

come on man, when do you think the first interview after a player signs up with a new club is released? End of 2011? I know Carroll doesn't have PhD from Harvard but surely he knows that much.

Pretty sure he could have just said "I'm obviosly sad to be leaving my boyhood club, but the chance I have been given at Liverpool is.... etc etc" exactly, doesn't have to be one extreme or the other.

Can't remember to be honest, I remember it as the first interview he gave after joining Chelsea, but I could be wrong. The point remains, even with the Liverpool reporter, he could have explained why it was a difficult decision for him and I think most fans would understand. Plus don't see your point on why who the reporter is matters, what difference does it make? even with a neutral reporter, the Liverpool fans are still gonna read his comments. In fact if anything it is because this is his first interview that he can afford to express the difficulty in making the decision. If I was a Liverpool fan, I would be way more pissed off if he was still talking about Newcastle 3 months into his career with Liverpool, neutral reporter or not.

I don't think it has to be black and white as you put it. Yes, agree that Carroll had to say the 'right things' to the official club reporter, BUT if he was genuinely sad at leaving Newcastle, he could have still said it without alienating Liverpool fans. He didn't have to say I'm only here for the money but he could have said something like "leaving Newcastle was difficult because I'm a Geordie and I know how important the number 9 is to the Toon Army, but Liverpool is a great club and I'm looking forward....bla bla bla". There is a middle ground that he could have taken and most Liverpool fans would understand, see what Shevchenko said when he left Milan for Chelsea, he was full of praise to the Milan fans, thanked the club and said that he will always have good memories of Milan, don't Chelsea fans lynching him for saying those things.

That does make it clear. Unproven kid with an offer more than Villa and co? sheeesh. I would probably bite off that hand that offered 35mill. Sucks. But True. That is a crazy list right there!

http://www.bootcampking.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/NoShitSherlock.jpg I suppose it does at least put paid to the conspiracy theory, hinted at by True Faith and others, about Carroll not really being injured and simply being kept fresh for a high value sale on 31st January. Wait it's not the end of the conspiracy theory yet! Fat Mike had a clause in the deal that prohibited Liverpool from playing Carroll in the next few weeks and where Dalglish had to go on record saying that Carroll is indeed injured so that Ashley would not be accused of orchestrating the whole deal including the injury part

wtf? I'm not holding onto the official line at all. I'm not absolving Ashley of all the blame, but the fact is Carroll handed in a transfer request (if that wasn't true, he would come out and say "I didn't hand in a transfer request"). He is yet to explain how anyone could force him to hand in a transfer request, and until he does all I can think is that he did it because he wanted to leave. In addition to this question that JH has been asking many times over (that nobody seems to be answering), 2 additional questions remain that blow holes into the conspiracy theory 1) If Carroll didn't want to go and and didn't hand in the transfer request, then why the fuck did he agree personal terms with Liverpool? Was fat Mike sitting next to him in Anfield with a gun at his back saying..."sign the contract or you mother fucker"? 2) Given his past actions and the fact that he does not care about what we think of him, why would fat Mike suddenly be PR conscious and try to look good to the fans? Think he knows himself that it is a lost cause

You'll believe him if he says it out loud, but not in a text? Gosh! Maybe because we don't even know or seen any proof that the text is from him! This is basically 3rd party information of someone who for all we know just wants to get some attention. Have you seen the text or has Carrol even said anything about the text?

err then maybe he could have rejected the personal terms and fuck it up?

Wrong I (and suspect many others) will be watching closely how much of that 35M is reinvested back in the team. By the way, I'm curious where do you get the impression that he likes to sell players and that he keeps the money to himself. So far, under him we've had reasonably good transfer windows (summer and January). Players like Coloccini, HBA, Tiote, Enrique (?) were all bought under him and have been very good buys. This is the first time I would say we had a shit trasfer window and even then not so much because Carroll went off but coz we did not get any replacements in.

Good post, my problem with him though is not so much on the sale of Carroll but that he did not seem to have an idea on who to get in as replacement. Might be easier said than done, but he should have made contacts with clubs on some potential replacements and once the deal for Carroll went through, all that is left should have been to tie up lose ends (and maybe add 2-3M more since it's late in the transfer window). Instead he/we tried to go for N'zogbia which to me is a clear sign that Pardew had not prepared for all evetualities and in this case the worse scenario (i.e. of Carroll leaving at the last minute). We still had a good 4-6 hours left and if all he could come out with was a 12M bid for N'Zogbia, then that is pathetic!

Would also be interesting to see if Carroll does play against Stoke on Wednesday and Chelsea on Sunday, to see if the injury was real or just a cover up in preparation for the sale. Remember Pardew's latest was that Carroll is definitely unavailable for Fulham and probably Arsenal too, now unless Liverpool has some quick cure miraculous drug/therapy, that timeline should remain. Otherwise it was bullshit all along.

well, let's see what the next few days press conferences reveal shall we? he's already stated publicly he was "forced out" right? any direct quotes or tabloid bullshit that people are using to justify their views? I would like to hear Carroll give an interview where he comes clean one way or the other. Pardew also owes a lengthy explanation not so much o why Carroll was sold but why he did not have a Plan B and lined up replacements, fucking pathetic management to be honest that we now have to rely on Ameobi and Best as our strikers.

I said when he was first appointed that unlike the Hughton fan club members, that I would give Pardew a decent chance and judge him by two criteria 1) our form and how many points we get under him till end of January 2) how he handles the Jan transfer window On our form, have to say it is impressive, beating Liverpool at home and Wigan away were excellent, thrashing West Ham was good even if the win was expected, drawing with Mackem and Spurs were good but unfortunate results due to conceding last minute goals, lost to Man City and Spurs away were expected, losing to Stevenage completely unacceptable. Overall he has done well and I believe got us more points than if Hughton was still in charge On the recently concluded transfer window, I am far from happy in fact livid. He started the window saying quite rightly that we needed another striker to partner Carroll. I can accept that the selling of Carroll may have been out of his hand particularly with the transfer request, but it is unacceptable that he did not have a plan b and some deals lined up. Any decent manager would have prepared for all eventualities and when Carroll was sold, he was caught surprised like a squirrel under spotlights as proven by the last minute attempts to get Zoggy (who is not even a striker). So on that account, he gets a massive thumbs down from me and my judgment of him is now in the negative zone. The only way he can make up for this stupidity and idiocy is by making sure that we are safe from relegation and spend whatever money he is given wisely in the summer, after what happened yesterday, I have my doubts on both accounts.

Best & Ameobi for the rest of the season when Pardew was looking to add another striker during the window is just crazy. Pardew has a lot to explain for this. I can accept the sale of Carroll although the timing was wrong, but I cannot accept that we did not get any decent replacement in, not even on a loan basis. Doubt we will score many goals now unless HBA turns into a goal scoring machine March onwards.

depends on timing, during the summer, I would take anything in excess of 30M unless of course he becomes like top scorer of the league and bangs in goals for England left and right (in which case add adnother 20M). But yesterday, I would not have sold for any price just because it would have been impossible (as proven today) to get decent replacement. Since your post did not specify timing, I voted 30M

so we basically didn't get a replacement and now have the combine awesome firepower of Ameobi + Best?

OK I'm tried of arguing with all the delusional people who are making up conspiracy theories as they go, they are not even consistent with each trying to outdo the other to see who is more delusional. At least band together in a room and come out with a consistent believable story line. My only concern now is how much of that money are we gonna spend this transfer window and who are we gonna get to replace Carroll with such limited time left. I'll be fucking livid if all we get in is Ireland

Come on. You've got more about you than that. Textbook manipulation that you've all fallen for. Yep. PR for dummies. You should try conspiracy theory for dummies, your cooked up theory is not even close to believable

We've accepted a bid, man. Of course it's partially Ashley's fault. Accepted the bid after he submitted the transfer request. The way the situation has been presented leads me to believe that we had every intention of selling him if the right bid came in. Aye, funny how you never ever heard of bids going in for the likes of Carragher, Scholes, Giggs - players that were genuinely "not for sale". It flowed round the media because we let it. Both clubs have to agree to a bid being made public, otherwise it's tapping up. What nonsense, absolute rubbish. Tapping up is only when the buying club talks to the player without going through his current club. If a bid is made and especially on transfer dateline, it's pretty much public information.

hilarious stuff too bad it's just your imagination

:clap: Yup all the conspiracy theory is just plain embarrassing