From a £35 million signing by Liverpool, to a loanee and then a £15 million signing by West Ham, Andy Carroll is at a point where no one actually wants to sign him anymore. West Ham haven’t seen him play this season, and are hoping that in January that Newcastle, 18th in the Premier League and still without a single win, are going to want to take him off their hands, at least for this season.
What happened? Well, injuries, having a hard time staying in shape when he wasn’t getting minutes and simply not being that good. No one actually thought Carroll was worth so much money when Liverpool signed him in 2011. The excuse was Liverpool decided they’ll sign Carroll for £15 million less than what they got for Fernando Torres, who was another poor signing (by Chelsea), leaving for a then-record £50 million.
Carroll is a useful player to have, but being signed for so much money made him seem not just overrated in the eyes of almost every manager and football director in the Premier League seemed to make people think of him even less. Carroll didn’t tell Liverpool to sign him for that much. It was a terrible decision, a rash one, for a 21 year old player who had about one half of a good season in the Premier League to show for himself.
Liverpool somehow managed to get West Ham to pay an eight-figure sum for him after he scored 11 goals in 58 matches for the Reds. Sam Allardyce loves ’em big, strong and simple. Carroll ended up scoring two goals in 15 matches for West Ham as injuries got in the way again, adding five assists to make his contribution seem a bit less abysmal. The Hammers have started out the season with 10 points through the first seven matches, ranked 7th in the league. All this without Carroll spending a single minute on the pitch.
This summer had some moments when it seemed like Newcastle were showing some interest in their former player, who did very well under Alan Pardew. But Carroll always stated he’s happy with life in London. Maybe now, after being completely wiped off the rotation at Upton Park, he’ll change his mind.
West Ham are probably dreaming of some gigantic fee and the ability to get rid of his massive salary. Newcastle? You never know what’s the driving force of intellect at that club. While the only thing that makes sense is loaning Carroll with an option of signing him later for a not too outrageous fee, desperation and lack of footballing IQ among the deciding figures at the club could lead to some surprising results in this potential deal.