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


Pilko
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I'm amazed you were conned by it all, man. First you had Sky sources saying he was on the way to Liverpool, then 20 minutes later we'd rejected a bid. It was obvious the whole thing had become PR damage limitation long before Carroll's 'request' was announced.

 

is there anything you don't know with the power of hindsight?

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I'm amazed you were conned by it all, man. First you had Sky sources saying he was on the way to Liverpool, then 20 minutes later we'd rejected a bid. It was obvious the whole thing had become PR damage limitation long before Carroll's 'request' was announced.

 

is there anything you don't know with the power of hindsight?

 

http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/shared/downloads/wallpaper/season-14/1412/1412b_captain-hindsight_thumb.jpg?width=320

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Probably a bit strange to say but, Carroll progressed too fast since back to EPL. If it's 2, or even 1 year later, things will be a lot different.

 

Probably not strange to say it, whatever it is.  You've said it in a strange way though.

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It still hurts me a lot too and I do want the lad to do well personally whilst not wanting Liverpool to do well.  I just can't help liking the kid.  I find it hugely irritating to see him doing the same things he was doing for us but the media now going overboard about it because he is a Liverpool player.  I also think it is totally disrespective for them to say he is better off at Liverpool than he would have been here and that he has supposedly changed his ways as if he was getting into trouble every weekend up here. 

 

I guess until we replace him with some decent strikers, we are stuck in some kind of limbo.  However, I have really loved this squad of players and their attitude during the last couple of years and it now seems as if that is being broken up earlier than it needs to be.

 

One of my theories though is that I do believe that the club were touting him around as Redknapp has said and that in a way we got lucky with Liverpool coming in for him and paying so much otherwise I think he would have ended up at Spurs for £20m on the last day of the window.  I think Spurs were quite confident of getting him as they were desperate for a striker and he was the one they wanted but that Levy was playing hard ball over the transfer fee as usual and then Liverpool came in and blew them away.

 

Anyway only the people involved that day really know want happened but until this club regularly starts doing what they say they will do then I will always be sceptical of anything they say.  Everything that Ashley and Llambias are involved in becomes confused with conflicting stories and it seems to me they have become very adept at manipulating public opinion on Tyneside to deflect attention from themselves onto the players etc and leaving us all to all argue with each over depending on whose version we choose to believe.

 

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Guest Mantis

He's not our player any more. Have found it surprisingly easy to disassociate him from us.

 

Far more concerned with who we're going to replace him with this summer....

 

Not losing any sleep over him, fuck him, in fact I couldnt care less about him.  I'm more concerned that we will again be letting our top players go in the next 12 months and accepting shit served up as steak.

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The worst thing for me is that one of the "group of lads" had left. I honestly thought they all loved it here, and I had been saying Jose, Carroll etc would turn down bigger clubs cos we had what appeared to be such a tight group.

 

Carroll leaving has destroyed that tightness and loyalty of the squad I thought was there, and now I expect whoever to jump ship once a decent offer comes in.

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Never felt worse than when Sky announced the transfer request, especially having just announced a bid rejection the other side of the break.

 

Such a high, followed by such a fall. I bought into his words, and I'm sure he meant them at the time too. Watching that interview before the Chelsea game, I never thought we'd be in this position ever, nevermind this season.

 

I'm amazed you were conned by it all, man. First you had Sky sources saying he was on the way to Liverpool, then 20 minutes later we'd rejected a bid. It was obvious the whole thing had become PR damage limitation long before Carroll's 'request' was announced.

 

I'm struggling to see how it was so 'obvious' at the time, without looking at the saga with 20/20 hindsight. 

 

SSN are hardly the most reliable of media outlets.  Their sources once announced that Ferdinand was to be imminently appointed England's captain in 2008, for the FA to announce 2 minutes later that it was to be in fact John Terry... and this was in the summer.. not an ultra busy day of the year for them, like transfer deadline day.

 

If you called it as a PR exercise at the time then fair play.  Would like to see a quote :thup:

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Carroll leaving killed my belief that players have any real loyalty to a club. If the local lad living his dream of being Newcastle's number 9 can leave any player can. Barton, Enrique, Nolan, etc. may all say they want to stay but I'll believe it when I see it.

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Thought this was well put :p

 

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/liverpools-andy-carroll-broke-my-newcastle-heart/

 

Longish quote

 

 

He was supposed to be a hero, a legend, a Geordie monster truck that mixed his drinks and didn't give a monkey's about any team but Newcastle. Now he's at Liverpool, saluting the Kop. Oh how it hurts...

 

'Heard the one about Mike Ashely Kenny?'

 

Before we go any further, I’d just like to point out that I’ve never had a relationship with Andy Carroll, and nor have I ever wanted to – I mean just look at his hair. Yes I’d admired him from a distance – from about halfway up the Gallowgate End to be exact – and we’d shared some special moments, but I was never in love with him. At least that’s what I thought until he swanned off to Liverpool.

 

Since then it’s been a confusing time to say the least. He sent a lot of mixed messages if I’m being honest. “All I’ve ever wanted to do was wear the number nine shirt for Newcastle.” That’s what he said, just before he left. Perhaps he’d whispered the words “for about six months,” under his breath at the press conference, but I didn’t hear him, and the Newcastle Evening Chronicle didn’t report it. I was sold.

 

Pain isn’t an unusual emotion for me where football is concerned. Twenty-eight years of supporting Newcastle United has obviously offered more misery than joy. Two relegations, countless seasons of mediocrity and roughly five years of happiness sandwiched in-between – suspiciously just the right amount to raise expectations and heap further misery on the generations to come.

 

Then came Carroll. I’ll be honest; I wasn’t impressed when I first saw him. “Here’s another six-foot-something-clogger,” I thought. “Division One striker, nothing more.” And even after he bagged 19 in our promotion season, I still wasn’t convinced of his top flight credentials.

 

 

But he stepped up, and Newcastle fans, for the first time in a long time, had something to cling to. A barnstorming striker who had long hair, fights in pubs, and a penchant for the occasional threesome (his catchphrase is allegedly, “Ride me, ride me,” incidentally). Oh, and he could play a bit too. What’s not to like?

 

After years of being the Comedy Club, the papers and pundits were full of platitudes and plaudits. Here stood the future of English football, and he was ours. No more years of meekly surrendering at Old Trafford, Anfield, and Highbury. Although he wasn’t the finished article, nobody was going to fancy marking Carroll. There was a good chance he’d eat them.

 

The best thing about him, for me at least, was that as a local lad he loved Newcastle and wanted nothing more than to play for the club. Yes, the highly priced prima donnas would come and go, but this one was for keeps. He would see out his career here, and when Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger came knocking, he would politely tell them to jog on as he was going down the Bigg Market for a pint. Who knew that in the end, all it would take to turn his head would be a Boyzone gig, a posh house in Formby, and 80 grand a week?

 

When it comes to pain, the brain doesn’t differentiate between the physical and emotional. But it does try to help us avoid it. However where Carroll is concerned I have a complete lack of nociception. A sadomasochistic streak that keeps me from turning away. Watching Liverpool against Man City the other night was like spying on an old girlfriend with her new bloke, all happy and bright. I won’t lie to you, I was confused. I wanted him to do well, was almost happy when he scored, but then tortured myself watching him celebrate with his new teammates. It was a bit like self harm.

 

The galling thing is that he does things with Liverpool that he used to do with us. Did you see that whole corner thing? Where Martin Skrtel acted as a buffer between him and Carroll’s marker, allowing the striker a better opportunity to get a header in on goal? Well he used to do that with Kevin Nolan at our corners. That hurt. Did nothing of what he did at Newcastle mean anything to him, were we that transferable?

 

I guess what stings the most is knowing that Liverpool can offer him something we never could: a real chance of success. He’s already starting to show some form, his new side is steadily improving and they’ll no doubt pilfer a few more players in the summer – our full-back Jose Enrique very probably being one of them. Meanwhile we’ll struggle on in mid-table, if we’re lucky . Yes Carroll could have stayed, but he’d have only ended up resenting us. Let’s be honest, he probably did the right thing, the thing Shearer most likely wanted to do but was just too loyal to act upon.

 

I know this all sounds like a bitter fan’s bile-soaked whining. And to an extent, it is. But I don’t remember feeling like this when Andy Cole turned into Andrew Cole and left for Old Trafford. I guess I’m hoping, above all else, that by explaining how I feel it’ll have some sort of cathartic effect, allowing me to move on, be the better man, and wish him all the best. But I doubt it. Football love is a tricky emotion.

 

I suppose there’s always the chance that he could turn into a one season wonder of course. How good would that be? The ponytailed Michael Ricketts. What a perfectly justifiable slice of shadefraude. As ever unfortunately, it seems that the life of a Newcastle United fan is destined to be one of pure, unadulterated blind hope.

 

 

 

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'Selling Carroll has left the club weaker but, on that decision, I would have done the same. The reason I say that is the player had been given a contract five weeks earlier - all he had to say was 'I'm going nowhere'. He had been given a good contract from what I hear' - Freddie Shepherd.

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:sadnod:

 

Carroll left because he wanted to, no forcing out IMO.

 

He left because he was being offered a lot more money at a club who will be challenging for CL football next season. With us he'd have had to wait another five years to be in that position...assuming we didn't sell our best players during that time. Hmmm.

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:sadnod:

 

Carroll left because he wanted to, no forcing out IMO.

 

He left because he was being offered a lot more money at a club who will be challenging for CL football next season. With us he'd have had to wait another five years to be in that position...assuming we didn't sell our best players during that time. Hmmm.

 

Not sure what that's got to do with my post but...ok.

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But we didn't put up much of a fight to keep him did we?

no, we were offered 35 million man, why would Mike fight to hold onto 1 player for that ammount?

 

Fro a fans point of view its hard to swallow, but you can hardly bollock the owner until its confirmed what the money has been used for

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But we didn't put up much of a fight to keep him did we?

no, we were offered 35 million man, why would Mike fight to hold onto 1 player for that ammount?

 

Fro a fans point of view its hard to swallow, but you can hardly bollock the owner until its confirmed what the money has been used for

 

Indeed.

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We keep going full circle on this again and again and again. It's like this thread is on a loop :lol:

 

And will be for the next 10 years or so.

 

Carroll is going to become one of the best strikers in the world. If you think Newcastle supporters aren't going to resent the current owners of this club for turning that helicopter engine on, you've got another thing coming mate.

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Shepherd's proof though that 95% owners would have sold him for that so think it's harsh blaming the owner in this instance.

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