West Ham agree fee in region of £15m with Liverpool for Andy Carroll

[Dokko]

I doubt any of them would try and tell Carroll what to do with him towering over them and his past record.

 

 

[Guest toonlass]

There is so much bullshit flying about from both NUFC and Carroll. I still think it's a stupid amount of money for someone who has had a decent half season in the premier league, and if it were to be reinvested in the team I would probably feel ok about it. But I don't think it will be. I also don't buy for a second that Carroll was forced out. He could have said no at any stage. Ashley has ended up making a hell of a lot of money, Carroll's agent has made a hell of a lot of money, Carroll has made a hell of a lot of money. All three will be laughing all the way to the bank!

[9]

To be fair in that interview Carroll looks about as pleased to be there as Owen did when he landed here from Madrid

[Guest firetotheworks]

I think all of us want to believe Carroll, the alternative would really shake my football belief system. I hope he's telling the truth, and I hope the truth comes out, because now I think I'd feel better with the anger of Ashley fucking us over, than Carroll doing it.

[Mick]

There is so much bullshit flying about from both NUFC and Carroll. I still think it's a stupid amount of money for someone who has had a decent half season in the premier league, and if it were to be reinvested in the team I would probably feel ok about it. But I don't think it will be. I also don't buy for a second that Carroll was forced out. He could have said no at any stage. Ashley has ended up making a hell of a lot of money, Carroll's agent has made a hell of a lot of money, Carroll has made a hell of a lot of money. All three will be laughing all the way to the bank!

 

We're the only ones who have been shafted in all of this, as usual.

[Guest firetotheworks]

A canny perspective on things.

 

http://soccerlens.com/lies-what-andy-carroll-and-newcastle-arent-telling-the-fans/64987/

 

Just an opinion, possibly 2+2=5, but interesting nonetheless.

[TaylorJ_01]

When I left the office today I had to go back in because I'd forgotten to do something. As I turned my laptop on I realised I hadn't even noticed in the morning that my login was 'carroll'.

 

Mine was changed to our new hero Stephen Ireland.

 

Thank you.

[merlin]

Anybody read this?

 

http://soccerlens.com/lies-what-andy-carroll-and-newcastle-arent-telling-the-fans/64987/

 

“Despite getting the best financial deal of the day you suspect Newcastle will end up being the window’s biggest losers.” – Adrian Clarke.

 

In a nutshell, that’s what Liverpool’s record £35m signing of Andy Carroll from Newcastle United boils down to – they got silly money that they couldn’t refuse, but with no time to reinforce the squad, they now face 4 months without one of their best players and might as well be dragged into a relegation battle given the tight nature of the bottom half of the table.

 

Andy Carroll has said that he didn’t want to leave Newcastle, and that the board asked him to sign a transfer request and basically ‘backed him into a corner’. Adrian (see his twitter stream from the link above) argues that clubs force players out all the time, and objectively speaking if Newcastle had received the £35m bid at any other point in the transfer window (or indeed the next summer) it would have been madness not to sell – £35m could easily be spent on much-needed strengthening of the playing squad.

 

Andy Carroll: “[Managing director] Derek [Llambias] asked me to hand in a transfer request, so I was pushed into a corner and had no choice. I wasn’t wanted by them and they made it clear they wanted the money.

 

Then I flew down in (owner Mike Ashley’s) helicopter. I didn’t want to leave.

 

I’m gutted that I wasn’t wanted at my home team after everything I have done and the progress I have made.

 

I didn’t want to leave at all. Make sure they know I didn’t want to leave.”

 

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has hit back at Carroll’s claims of being ‘forced out’, saying that in light of Liverpool’s offer he had asked for a new contract (after recently signing a long-term deal) and that once that request was turned down, asked to leave.

 

Alan Pardew: “I went to see Andy, and face to face we had a conversation about him wanting a new contract, even though he signed on in October, and (he said) if he didn’t get that contract, he wanted to go.”

 

So what really happened?

 

Firstly, I don’t think Carroll wanted to go. He (or his agent) knew about the Liverpool offer, knew the wages that were on offer, and probably decided to use that as leverage to get an improved contract. Problem was, the money on the table was too high to be dismissed out of hand, and the wages on offer were too high to match for a club that has been desperately trying to curtail expenses / wages in the last two years.

 

Secondly, did the Newcastle ownership think it was a good deal to cash in on Andy Carroll when the first offer came in? Probably. You’d consider it, even if you knew that the club needed to keep the player to re-establish themselves in the Premier League, and that keeping Carroll in the face of bigger clubs making silly bids would bring them some much-needed credibility after the Hughton decision.

 

“Sounds like Carroll and his agent had their bluff called by Ashley. One push too far, owner cracks, game changes and Carroll’s in a corner.” – Iain Macintosh

 

It seems like Carroll went ahead and asked for a raise, and if so, it was rightly rejected by the Newcastle board for being too soon after his previous contract signing. And it also seems likely that Newcastle were aware that a big-money, last-minute move for the player was due to come in, and they had at least entertained the idea of

 

Newcastle say Carroll asked for a raise, and asked to leave if he didn’t get it. Carroll says he didn’t want to go. You can’t have both, so while it’s likely that Carroll did push for an improved contract, it also seems like Newcastle were less inclined to keep him than he (or anyone else) thought, and when they saw the money and Carroll’s strategy on the last day, they pushed the deal through.

 

Carroll, for what it’s worth, gets a bumper wage hike, a nice signing-on bonus while his agent gets a good deal too. He’s going to play in a bigger club with bigger aspirations, although the move is probably an year too soon for him and it remains to be seen if Liverpool can properly manage him.

 

Newcastle will suffer, although if Pardew can keep the team in the Premier League and is given the 35m to spend on rebuilding the squad this summer, they might come out of it all right.

 

Regardless of what fans may feel about agents, Mike Ashley and Alan Pardew (or young footballers), this is what happens when there’s a lot of money involved. Loyalties are cast aside, and only the ugly truth remains. The thing with football is, we spend so much time pretending this isn’t true that we get surprised every time it happens.

 

This is probably the most accurate assessment of the whole episode - and sadly, the guy is right too, when he says Carroll has joined a bigger club with bigger aspirations.

[merlin]

i see our captain Nolan is now on lfctv banging on about what a great signing carroll will be for liverpool, f*** me.

 

wonder when we can expect gerrard to wax lyrical over torres on chelsea tv.

 

un f***ing believable

 

just a little disclaimer i dont know if its a new interview or old one but as i dont have lfctv however it looks like its new looking at description 

 

Why is anyone surprised ? Nolan is a Scouser first and NUFC player a long way behind that.

 

Scousers believe, as do the rest of the country, that Liverpool are a much bigger club that NUFC and if you take away a few years in the 90s, they are right...we couldn't even beat them at their place in 96, and it cost us the title. The only time we've been a bigger club was back on the early 20th Century and for a few years in the 50s.

 

We have been their rabbits and they know it... they've signed our best players over the years and its been like winning the FA Cup(no, we couldn't even do THAT when we played them at Wembley) when we've beaten them because it hasn't happened often...nobody who supports NUFC wants to admit it but they are the facts...why do you think they were taken over recently and we weren't ??

 

If you think this is wrong, you are living in a different dimension. Even if we had won the PL in 96, we would have had a long way to go to get anywhere near their record of success - Man U are only just approaching their record of titles.

 

Its warm in summer, cold in winter - and NUFC are a very moderate club when compared to Liverpool - I don't like it, but there it is. If we couldn't change it in the 90s, we aint going to do it now.

[alpal78]

This is on True Faith, Everybody's talking page 7:

 

Just wanted to add to the growing evidence that Andy Carroll has been sold against his wishes.

 

I work with Ryan Taylors dad down here on Merseyside. He has just texted me to say that Ryan was with Carroll at the training ground yesterday and that the lad was inconsolable as he didnt want to go. Apparently he was in a right state and it was clear that the club gave him no option but to leave.

 

The total twats.

 

Cheers

 

David Coulson, Knowsley, Merseyside.

 

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?

[taxfree]

Miss you Andy, you cunt.

[Filflop1]

This has agent engineering move all over it, carrol has done what rooney and gerrard have done in the past tried to hold the club to ransom or I'm off but Newcastle stood there ground and said if you want that cash now you will have to move and stick a request in which he did and he left greed wins again I mean I really don't know how carrol was going to manage on 30k a week until the summer ffs.

He will be gutted cause he probably expected ash n co to shit themselves and pay him the big wedge now, the agent then would have forced his head into the move so he gets his big wedge and carrol gets his pay rise now its just a sad state of the game these days driven by greed.

Carrol will probably return in a few years for a lot less than we paid

[Peppe]

I know i'm as soft as shite but after about 30 seconds of the lfc interview, i felt sorry for him. He looks uncomfortable.

I wonder if he woke up this morning and wondered "what the fuck have I done?" Somewhere in my heart I want him to regret it already - despite all the money.

What a fucking tragic 30 hours.

 

I got that impression too

[Ishmael]

Haha, Dave, who runs the board, had a super weak password

[Guest palnese]

Haha, Dave, who runs the board, had a super weak password

 

What? You cracked it?

[Guest Brazilianbob]

Just read Pardews quotes on the BBC where he says "at the end of the day we got an extraordinary sum of money for a 21 year old with only 6 months experience in the premiership".

 

All I can say in response to that is thank goodness we never had a 21 yeard old Messi on our books.  No doubt he would have been sold too for "an extraordinary sum of money" that would eventually pale into insignificance once his true value became known.

 

I suspect that will now be the case with Carroll, with the added painful bonus of seeing him score many many goals against us over the next ten years!

 

The problem with having non footballing people in charge of our club, namely Llambias and Ashley, is they are businessmen and cannot see beyond the end of a balance sheet.  They just cannot see that a players worth after 6 months could treble or quadruple given a year or two!  They have quite simply sold the family silver for short term gain!

[Filflop1]

He put a request in and tried to hold the club to ransom over pay I don't blame the club at all. It's unfortunate that he chose money over us.

Time to move on

[TBG]

I wish Metro radio would shut the fuck up about people who have bought a shirt with Cunt 9 on the back.

[LucaAltieri]

Reading the italian papers today. They call it the "strangest" transfer of the window. 35mil on a player who has scored so few goals, is currently injured, made only 1 token appearance for the national side, and is more well known for his actions off the pitch.

 

Interesting outsider perspective.

[arnonel]

Just read Pardews quotes on the BBC where he says "at the end of the day we got an extraordinary sum of money for a 21 year old with only 6 months experience in the premiership".

 

All I can say in response to that is thank goodness we never had a 21 yeard old Messi on our books.  No doubt he would have been sold too for "an extraordinary sum of money" that would eventually pale into insignificance once his true value became known.

 

I suspect that will now be the case with Carroll, with the added painful bonus of seeing him score many many goals against us over the next ten years!

 

The problem with having non footballing people in charge of our club, namely Llambias and Ashley, is they are businessmen and cannot see beyond the end of a balance sheet.  They just cannot see that a players worth after 6 months could treble or quadruple given a year or two!  They have quite simply sold the family silver for short term gain!

 

except. someone paid more for an unproven, injured, trouble maker 21 year old than others have for, say........David Villa.

 

Do youself a favor and look at the top 50 transfers of all time, and tell me where Carrol ranks. Ill miss him, and I dont like the cloud, but lets not forget we got the 8th highest transfer ever paid. More than Rooney, more than Ferdinand, more than berbatov, more than David Villa, etc etc

 

 

[Kaizero]

As much as Llambias is a lying cunt, I'm inclined to believe what he's said is the most realistic scenario just down to sheer plausibility difference between the various stories being bandied about.

[womblemaster]

`Reading the italian papers today. They call it the "strangest" transfer of the window. 35mil on a player who has scored so few goals, is currently injured, made only 1 token appearance for the national side, and is more well known for his actions off the pitch.`

 

whats do italians know about football anyway?  SOunds like another clueless jounalist spouting obvious statements.....its easy to look in from the outside and not comprehend whats transpired in the last 48hrs.

YOu cant analyse a footballer by stats alone.

Well you can if ur the 2 muppets who run nufc, but dalglish knows what to look for in afootballer.

 

I hope carroll goes on to put a hatrick past some equally clueless italian side in the chmp lge.

[Flip]

`Reading the italian papers today. They call it the "strangest" transfer of the window. 35mil on a player who has scored so few goals, is currently injured, made only 1 token appearance for the national side, and is more well known for his actions off the pitch.`

 

whats do italians know about football anyway?   SOunds like another clueless jounalist spouting obvious statements.....its easy to look in from the outside and not comprehend whats transpired in the last 48hrs.

YOu cant analyse a footballer by stats alone.

Well you can if ur the 2 muppets who run nufc, but dalglish knows what to look for in afootballer.

 

I hope carroll goes on to put a hatrick past some equally clueless italian side in the chmp lge.

 

But...but..they will never play in the Champions League?

[TRon]

`Reading the italian papers today. They call it the "strangest" transfer of the window. 35mil on a player who has scored so few goals, is currently injured, made only 1 token appearance for the national side, and is more well known for his actions off the pitch.`

 

whats do italians know about football anyway?   SOunds like another clueless jounalist spouting obvious statements.....its easy to look in from the outside and not comprehend whats transpired in the last 48hrs.

YOu cant analyse a footballer by stats alone.

Well you can if ur the 2 muppets who run nufc, but dalglish knows what to look for in afootballer.

 

I hope carroll goes on to put a hatrick past some equally clueless italian side in the chmp lge.

 

Obviously outside of England people will think it's a crazy transfer fee. Carroll's real value is in the premier league, I don't think he would be effective in European leagues where the ball is kept on the deck and the pace is a lot slower.

[ohmelads]

IF all of the money is reinvested, then I think it'll be good business.

 

For argument's sake, even if he goes on to be one of the best players in the world, we will never look back at having cashed in too early or for too little. We got 35M, hardly anybody goes for higher than that anywhere in the world.

 

Keeping him would have been a statement of ambition, that we can stand up to the big clubs and plan on keeping our best players. It would have been a stubborn act of defiance in the face of a very, very tempting offer. Losing him is a depressing sign that these clubs can bully us. However, I think few clubs would have rejected an offer that big for a player who at 22 has a handful of top flight goals to his name. Really, how many clubs would have said no?

 

I think we've played well enough without him to convince me that we can come out a winner in all this. But it all depends on Ashley reinvesting it in the team. It may be that we had to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. It's up to Ashley now to make that happen, because as things stand it's a backwards step.

 

There is the worry that the team will be down because of this and some may question our ambition. But I reckon the players will be looking forward to an interesting summer too and hoping some quality will come in. We will see soon enough how the players react, but they've got the ability to perform without him as they have shown.