KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Andy Carroll

When you heard we first signed him, what were your thoughts?



A year has gone past and yes, Carroll has been poor but is it really fair to slate him in the way a lot of us have been? Honestly, we expected better and fair enough for someone that costed as much as he did but it seems he was always to be 15m less than the Torres sale. Had Torres gone for 20m we would have got Carroll for 5m and then maybe there would be a lot less expectation.
Carroll is young though and is on a long term contract and he was signed because he was very promising at Newcastle. Not only was the lad (a lot) better on his head but his all around game was a lot better.

At Newcastle, Carroll was the main man, he knew this and he gave his all for the team every week on the pitch. He scored goals with his head, his left boot and his right boot. He never gave up, even when it looked as though the chance had gone (vs Chelsea, defender & Cech mixup) and followed through until he got his rewards.

The main thing to remember is, this player isn't gone. He can still be the monster that he was at Newcastle and the cult hero that we were all hoping for.
A lot of us are calling for a new striker now, a quick fix and another panic buy that could potentially fail.
Honestly, I hope we keep Carroll in the starting line up, even after Suarez comes back.

Once Carroll scores a few in consecutive games, he will get his confidence back and we will have the monster we've all been waiting for. His flick on for Bellamy against Bolton was class and Bellamy, Gerrard and Suarez will gobble up those chances. I have a feeling those 4 will start ticking and scoring goals in abundance, hopefully in time to save our season.

Regardless of who they are, we shouldn't slate any player that pulls on the Liverpool kit. Sure, be critical of their performances to a point but be hopeful as they are still all our players and anyone that isn't performing now could be looked to in a year or two as Lucas is now. In the beginning he didn't have many fans, now we're all crying out for him to recover.

I held that position on Carroll myself Evans, up until 5 or 6 matches back, but since then I've wanted him benched as his non performances are putting our season at risk. I would give him 30mins when we are at least 2 goals up for the rest of this season, and by the end of next season if he is still fooling around the pitch I'd call him a failed signing and move him out. We have to be ruthless if we want to get back into contention, we can't afford to be facilitating players who are clearly not giving it their all.

I rarely agree with you about anything but on this I think your spot on

I was willing to give Carroll not so much the benefit of the doubt but I was unwilling to join in with the general slating which seemed OTT but having seen him play in the last 4-5 games and seen him do virtually nothing in 90 mins of football, it's hard to argue that for £35m it currently looks like the worst transfer in the history of football

He's considerably worst than the non-scoring Torres at Chelsea who is at least contributing to his team in some kind of way

Carroll by contrast, at least in the last 5-6 games, has been lamentable in every aspect - first touch, movement, positionally - and doesn't even look a shadow of the plasyer who was one of the countries hottest yiung strikers at newcastle

So much that like you I fear that starting him iup front any more will see us out the running for 4th place by early February

Yes that's true Jim, we don't agree on much, but I too felt the early slating of Carroll was OTT and premature but now he's had a fair run and hasn't performed at an acceptable level for whatever reason. The club is bigger than any one player and the increasingly remote chance of a top 4 finish can't be put at risk while waiting for Carroll to start playing like a professional footballer it's time to either bring in a striker or give a chance to one of our reserve or youth players, they can't do any worse.

When we first signed Caroll I was too excited by the fact we sold Torres for 35m, I was disappointed over the price, however I thought he was going to make a big impact at Liverpool. But his career is not over, lets wait.

I don't understand all this talk of him 'always going to cost £15m less than Torres'! People keep bringing that up, often as en excuse as to why we paid so much. Where did that bizarre comment originate from? For it to be true, the following would need to have been put in place:

1) LFC would have told Newcastle that we'll give them 'whatever they want' for Carroll as long as it meant we got £15m change from the Torres deal (does that sound plausible for a professionally run business?)
2) Carroll's agent would have been part of this agreement (again, highly unlikely as he wouldn't have been aware of Chelsea's actual offer)
3) FSG would have been made aware of such a stipulation and agreed to it (definitely not unless they aren't the astute businessmen that we've been led to believe)

This raises a few questions:

1) Why did the profit from the Torres deal 'have to be £15m'? (makes no sense)
2) Why would we agree to pay a figure for Carroll based on the fee that Chelsea gave us?
3) Anyone who follows football could see that Carroll was worth £5-£10m tops, so why pay so much over the odds just because we got a good price for Torres? Is that how good businesses are run?
4) Would Newcastle have sold us Carroll for £1m if we only asked Chelsea for £16m for Torres (which is about what he was worth at the time)

Sorry, but all this talk of Carroll's fee being relative to the Torres fee is ludicrous. I'm guessing it was started by someone at the club as a means of justifying such a poor piece of business. I really hope that no one is gullible enough to be taken in by such a bizarre rumour.



ps - In response to the original question...I heard about our rumoured interest around lunchtime on deadline day last January. I assumed it was a joke.....I was CONVINCED it was a joke when I saw the fee that people were talking about!. Happy I was not that a club of our once proud stature would be interested in such a one dimensional oaf.

I heard at the Bolton game he got a lot of grief from the travelling Liverpool fans at the end of the game.

To me he is complete garbage and he does not even seem interested. However signed him wants shooting

He is a good player. I watched Bolton game and he didn't do much wrong. The problem is he needs crosses coming in too score. He is not ever going to skin 4 players and slot in corner. That's not his style. Either we play to his strengths, or sell him.

Keep the faith my friends... believe and keep supporting. For it is said that good things come to those who wait....

(but unfortunately, when these good things will come has not been foretold )

In my experience of life good things come to those who know what they are doing, put the effort in and have vision. If you just wait for waitings sake you will be waiting a long time.