Jack Flash

Leon was a canny lad and did ok for us, but frankly that statement is ridiculous, or even horse plop as someone said earlier. He scored more league goals for us than Carroll has for Liverpool

With the squad we've got now/will have soon and the money that appears to be available now and next summer, we should only really stay in or around the European spots imo. It would take a massive pessimist to think we've got anything other than a really bright long term future. Ogust 18nd pls

Got mine on the 10th August last year with the first game being the 13th.

Like who? NAME THEM. The more Carroll goes for the less likely we'll get him so hopefully this is all true.

Why bother Mark, I mean really. More s**** peddling on a monday morn Aye. Such big news it can wait 18 hours.

The sheer variety of the goals we've seen from Ba makes him the better striker. Him and Cisse can score in the blink of an eye and that's near impossible to defend against. Putting Carroll up front could make us too predictable.

There's part of me that still doesn't fully trust Pardew, mostly based on his past jobs and a few things that he's said or done here. The chances of it all falling apart like it has for him previously are much less as he has a better first 11 than most teams in the league and that alone should guarantee a top 8 finish. Anything above that will earn him praise. The biggest positive so far for him personally is whatever he has done to make SJP a very difficult place to come to, something which Hughton struggled with in the PL.

Having a chance at signing a player is pretty important part of having them on any list yeah. There isnt really a position to claim you trust how our scouting works but not this transfer, unless you believe fairlytale stories about Mike buying whoever he wants without consultation which have no basis. You've just made that fairy tale up though. Who have we bought who has had this said about them? I can't see any reason why our scouting network would be involved in this deal either. The point about them is that I would trust them to find a more suitable player than Carroll for the money being discussed. You've just said you reckon mike just spies a deal, are you not alluding that hes the main guy controlling this transfer by doing that? Thats the fairytale im talking about. It came about via Pardews initial interview when people were unsure about his comments & several have suggested it. I assume you also meant you cant see why our scouting team wouldnt be involved. The point im making is if you trust them, then there isnt a "more suitable player" in the first place. They are simply rating Carrolls potential ability differently to you and many others. I don't see why the scouts are involved at all. Ashley can see a good deal (in his eyes) and Pardew has clearly given the go ahead to it. It's probably no more complicated that that.

Has there been any indication so far that this is anything other than Ashley and Pardew trying to take advantage of a unexpected situation? If Rodgers hadn't put Carroll in the window I doubt we'd be in for him. Going in strongly for De Jong before all this kicked off probably proves this.

No need to be a baby about it. Our entire team (which finished 5th) cost about the same as Carroll went for. Shouldn't that tell you something?

Surely, but I find it hard to believe that your scouts don't have half a dozen better ideas who to spend £15m on. Name them. Every one of them. Now.

Having a chance at signing a player is pretty important part of having them on any list yeah. There isnt really a position to claim you trust how our scouting works but not this transfer, unless you believe fairlytale stories about Mike buying whoever he wants without consultation which have no basis. You've just made that fairy tale up though. Who have we bought who has had this said about them? I can't see any reason why our scouting network would be involved in this deal either. The point about them is that I would trust them to find a more suitable player than Carroll for the money being discussed.

Sorry. I'll word my posts much more carefully in the future

The people who have lost faith in the policy are the ones who are demanding a list of names of players who would be better value than Carroll. The people who are saying there are better players to buy are the ones who trust the policy. Not if we spend £10m+ on Carroll they're not, which seems a fair possibility. I'm sure Carroll got bumped up the list because he became "available" and Svelte Mike spies a deal. We'd have been in for him before De Jong if he was such a priority.

Howay man, Bigi has another chance to look like he has more potential than someone of similar skin colour and haircut, Gosling will definitely be useless or really promising and Obertan will still be worse than cancer. This fixture means everything, and the result will decide the lives of numerous people who are standing on the edge of a cliff right now. You're Unbelievable, Dave

The people who have lost faith in the policy are the ones who are demanding a list of names of players who would be better value than Carroll. The people who are saying there are better players to buy are the ones who trust the policy.

Abeid, Vuckic and Sammy dont look ready for friendlies

I'm sure he does. I was just pointing out that he can't be forced to leave. 'I'm gutted to be leaving my home town club, i was told to go. I didn't want to leave that's why I signed a 5 year deal. I was pushed out of the door.'

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/Tom-Lost.jpg/220px-Tom-Lost.jpg

It's worth mentioning that Hughton dropped Carroll at one point in that 6 months when he hadn't been playing well.

Suddenly You haven't heard ANY of the numerous "Carroll is shit lol" jokes in the last 18 months? That horse falling over a ball gif maybe?

You can't just say "who though?". The club will obviously have a list of well scouted players who they'd want who most of us haven't heard of or haven't seen much of. Carroll being asked to pick up where he left off with us is as much of, if not more of, a risk than us signing an "unknown" from abroad. If someone says there are much better players around for £15 million, their argument somewhat flounders if they can't actually name a better player. I'm not a scout who watches a few hundred games a year around the world. I don't watch any foreign football at all. If you or anyone else really thinks Carroll is the best striker we can get for £15million then you must work for Liverpool in some capacity. That Maiga (?) who we almost signed went for £5million for example.

If we keep Ba and Cisse, we don't need a top player to come straight in because he probably won't play much based on Pardew's comments recently about Ba being in a front 2. We can sign a young-ish striker and ease him in.