what was it someone said, the difference between 17th & 7th is about 7 million quid?
i'd hope ashley is approaching it this way, i.e. if he sells Carroll he has to spend some of the xx million on replacements for the squad and then he gambles that we end up further down the league and possibly even relegated thus negating the sale in the first place
smart move is to operate the way he has been recently, picking up players like HBA, Ireland etc. and hoping we can get the best out of them...build a nice team with spirit, albeit one with a limited pool of resources
that's the smart move for me, but as stated who knows what ashley will do if 40m cold hard cash is waved under his nose?