5 Apr 2014

He Lied to Me: 'Disillusioned' £15m star blasts Rodgers over LFC transfer. Sour grapes...?

Former Liverpool striker Andy Carroll has taken a pre-game potshot at Reds boss Brendan Rodgers, claiming that the Reds boss is to blame for the demise of his Anfield career.

In an interview yesterday with Sky Sports, Carroll - who cost West Ham £15m - blamed Rodgers for failing to give him a proper chance at the club, and even hinted that LFC's manager lied to him about his future. He explained:

"I never really got the chance and was told to leave. That's why I'm here."

"He did tell me that it [the partnership with Suarez] could work, and then when I was leaving he was telling me other things.

"I was a bit disillusioned about that. I think it could have worked, and I was getting told it could work from him."


The implication here is that Rodgers lacked sincerity on the issue of the Carroll/Suarez partnership. From Carroll's point of view, it seems that Rodgers kept Carroll sweet by making him believe that is would work, but then did a one-eighty dumped the striker at the first opportunity.

When asked about Carroll during his Friday press conference, Rodgers once again tried to put a positive spin on the striker's merciless excision from Anfield. He told reporters:

"Andy wasn't let go because he wasn't good enough; I think he's one of the best players in europe in the way he plays. He's one of the top strikers playing in that style of football.

"We came in with a certain approach and philosophy, and it's not to say he couldn't fit into that style, but he needed to play. There were financial considerations too"


Whatever the reason, getting rid of Carroll is one of Rodgers' best transfer decisions since taking the reigns at Anfield. You don't see countries like Spain, Brazil, Argentina, or Germany breeding hoofball players like Carroll, and there's a reason for that.

Carroll belongs in the 1980s; he's an anachronism in modern football, and his bludgeoning 'style' of play is more suited to a Sunday League ground.

He is definitely *not* compatible with LFC's long-standing 'pass and move' philosophy of football, and I still find it incredible (and a little ironic) that Kenny Dalglish - one of LFC's biggest proponents of the 'Liverpool Way' of playing - brought Carroll - the utter antithesis of that approach - to Anfield.

Try as I might, I still can't understand how Dalglish could've legitimately believed that a lolloping, technically bereft lummox of a player like Carroll could take Liverpool forward. Dalglish must surely have seen this scouting footage of Carroll prior to the transfer?

 photo ball-horse.gif

The days of Liverpool buying big target men should've died out with the departures of Erik Meijer and Emile Heskey, but Dalglish took the club back to the dark ages with the ill-fated Carroll transfer.

I don't blame Dalglish for Carroll's fee, though. FSG must shoulder the responsibility for signing-off on such a ridiculously inflated price. The group may not know that much about football, but you don't need to have 20-years experience of the Premier League to know that it's ridiculous to pay £35m for a player with only six months experience at the top level of English football.

Luckily, Brendan Rodgers has the right idea, and under his management, there's no way a player like Carroll will ever turn out for Liverpool.

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47 comments:

  1. Carroll was never a Liverpool player. He was a panic buy after the Torres sale. He is no doubt very good at what he does, strong in the air, very good asset at set pieces, he is a target man, from where the attack can start etc etc. All that said he is an asset for teams that like to play long ball, get it wide and cross it in tactics as their primary style of play. Carroll lacked the pace to play at Liverpool as a CF, and to be honest he lacks the quality to play for any team that would like to play the modern high tempo fluid, high pressing football and for that reason we will not see player like him at most top clubs unless he add speed to his game. However manager like Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis will see the likes of Carroll as the Messi/Ronaldo of their team, the focal point the main mana round whom the team is built, and that style of football is why such managers will not generally make get the opportunity at the very top clubs.

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  2. Nice to see the smug and self satisfied air reappearing at Liverpool .
    (Hope it comes back to bite you in the Ar*e, Sunday maybe

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  3. Could work! He obviously saw the lack of pace, skill, creativity and experience to not only partner Suarez, but be an influential player in the squad!
    Along comes Sturridge... Pace, skill, partners Suarez extremely well and scores goals! First striker to reach 30 in 100 years!..
    Nuff said!

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  4. Jamie, you need to vomit the dictionary that you have swallowed. Your audience is "the average football fan" who prefer plain old simple English. You are not writing for The Guardian! Save us the "merciless excision, anachronism, antithesis, bereft lummox". Get someone to spike your drink or try the old 2 fingers down the throat trick. The sooner you puke the dictionary the sooner you will be doing all of us a favour.

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  5. JK .... Remember Carrol came at the very end of a January window when Torres ditched us at the very last minute . We needed a response not just on the pitch but for the morale of both fans and players. We... The fans praised Kenny to high heavens then. We considered it a masterpiece! In a similar situation again,and same decision, it still would be one hell of a good decision .Kenny did the right thing then as far as am concerned. No one knew if Suarez would end up a success then; he had no premiership experience and an idol of the club, the striker had asked out in the last minute. We had very limited options and choices. At that time, with the circumstances and with the performance of Andy for Newcastle then...even though limited in time not in impact...it was a hell of good decision by Kenny. QED!!!

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  6. Knee jerk and heady reaction by KK when Torres went and we had the sale money in the bank . All he really had / has to offer is his height and ability to head the ball bullying defenders in the process ... Slow with little skill on the ball and would never fit BR's style of play. From all accounts lacked discipline in training as well ......
    He will always cause defenders problems and score the occasional goal on set pieces and crosses but not consistent enough . Be interesting to see how Skirtel and co deal with him tomorrow !

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  7. SSCandS are good obviously good enough, but, knock wood, we will be in 4 tourneys next season. Look what has happened to Spurs, arsenal and Chelsea lately. They have all dropped form because the numbers of matches they play takes a toll on players.

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  8. Andy's biggest problem was his health.


    I personally believe he could be a very good player in the right system. We didn't have the right players around him, and combining that with the idea that he simply wasn't healthy to get consistent game time, it was an unfortunate situation.


    This year, he's had injury spells yet again. It's pretty much inevitable with him and we could no longer rely on him to be a main contributor to the team.

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  9. Watch this...2012-13

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ4bYtDBA3U

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  10. Carroll was never good for Liverpool, period. Carroll should accept that and move on. I do not think he is even good for England national team but unfortunately he gets called

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  11. Yeah poor Andy was never given a chance. Well except for the 18 months of rubbish he served up. He had plenty of chances but he scored less than flippin Heskey. I hate it when players who have done sfa act all mistreated. Loser.

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  12. "Dark ages" - like Keegan and Toshak !

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  13. If FSG had not spend that year everybody will have be screaming how they are not supporting King Kenny. And we know how LFC loves King Kenny and how the "yanks" are loved too..! We need to move on it was a big mistake spending that much, I didn't care if the man was in LFC jersey but that transfer was too much.

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  14. Your user name is, clearly, very apt. I don't make any special effort to include 'big' words - what I write just comes out naturally, and if you don't like it, tough luck. I'm not going to insult the intelligence of visitors by deliberately dumbing things down. A lot of football fans are far more intelligent than you think. And please don't presume to know who the 'audience' for this site is. You don't.

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  15. You mean "who prefers".

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  16. Sometimes you cut your losses and move on. Even if you have to lie a little through. AC spends more time on the treatment table than the pitch.
    I;m sure that his injury prone nature also had a big influence in him being sold.

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  17. AC was a one-trick pony. He can head the ball well. That doesn't seem to hard to defend plus...if he doesn't get the service , he's not gonna score. So a team makes sure he doesn't get the service. It was a terrible transfer. He didn't have a track record to back up his hype. And BRF didn't say he was bad, just that fence-post strikers are not his style. Easy decision. Just keep the air balls to him to a minimum tomorrow and make somebody else shoulder the load and we'll do okay.

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  18. 35 Million, you've got to make sure the player is the best at what he does. Scoring goals, holding the ball up, creating for the players around him not just with his head. Drogba and Zlatan are big players and they use it to their advantage but their technical attributes are brilliant.

    The group thought they were getting a Drogba and then realising they got an Heskey without pace.

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  19. Thats why they got Downing in? so that crosses lead to goals? but that kind of football never suited Suarez.

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  20. We blew away 70 million that year.If any sensible person had so much money we would be Champions at the moment.I dont wanna name the persons responsible for this.We are not Manc who can spend 70 million every year.That was our 1 chance and we blew it.

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  21. dont worry whats done is done we sold him at a loss but we got the SAS and young strerling look forward and not back the good times are ahead with BR and this style of play we need not to go out bringing lots of big money players in bring back suso and sell aspas bring in borini and add about 3 more but dont spend big am sick of players wanting big wages just look at Dortmond they dont pay big but are very effective on the pitch the futures Red Liverpool Red

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  22. We were lucky to get £15m from West ham for Carroll but not sure why you are pointing all the blame at FSG as this was only their second signing plus we got the deal of the century when Torres was sold for £50m.


    Comolli was the biggest problem as he was the one that did the convincing by coming up with the idea of signing Downing to make the crosses and Carroll to head them in which both these players were excellent at. FSG put their trust in Comolli but got rid of him as soon as the plan went tits up so it is more lesson learnt and good on them for acting swiftly to fix the problem.

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  23. It's a matter of survival though. Clubs like West Ham, Palace, Stoke, Swansea, their first objective is to survive and to get a result. They know they won't ever challenge for Champions League places so they won't play like they will. Swansea under Rodgers played like they were pretending to be Barcelona but at the end of the day they finished near or nearabouts Pulis' Stoke. These managers do what it is asked of them. I don't think right now the Hammers ambition goes beyond staying in the PL and maybe getting a cup run together. But they could and they very well might derail our title challenge today. Old boys often come back to haunt us and it would be just like the Liverpool of old to now get done over, again, by Downing and Carrol. Our fellow challengers turned up the pressure yesterday so let's see how we respond. I have an awkward feeling about today's game but it could also be the pressure getting the best of me rather than the players :-)

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  24. Personally I'm a bit anxious to see BR handed 70 million as well now..

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  25. I have an idea, let ask FSG to not give Rodgers any money to spend. That way nobody can moan about new players being signed.

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  26. See, I do not know where you are going with your comment to be honest. You mention Man City who under their Sheikh spent £500 million before they won the EPL in 11/12.


    It is not about how much is spent, it is about how the money is spent.

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  27. You mention Man City who under their Sheikh spent £500 million before they won the EPL in 11/12 so think your conclusion of 70 million 'we would be Champions at the moment' is way off the mark.

    It is not about how much is spent, it is about how the money is spent.

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  28. Leave the kid alone! Ex Liverpool players should know better.

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  29. I love Rodgers. I think hes brillaint for the club. But ive got a horrible feeling there maybe something to what Carrol is saying. As Reina and Downing have said similar things..

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  30. its not about 500 million or 70 million. Liverpool is a team run on profits alone and each dollar spend by LFC is worth so much to us than they are to Manc or Chelshit. If we earn our money the hard way we need to spend it wisely. One more world class star in Liverpool would have made a world of difference to us.1 superstar is nothing to Mancs so dont compare that way.just think of what we lost.You dont wanna blame particular respected person. i can understand

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  31. Or they are showing their true colours and are just very bitter.


    Fact is who here thought we would ever be challenging for the title this soon.


    Some people here wanted Rodgers sacked less then 12 months ago, others have done nothing but criticise his every move yet the fact remains that he has got us playing some of the best football we have played since Roy Evans was in charge and fighting for the league title.

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  32. Maybe you did not see my point that you just repeated? If you go read my comment again then it states that it does not matter how much money is spent as it will not guarantee success. How you spend the money is what is going to determine your success.

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  33. Different era and different stage of team development. Also to be fair Toshack worked hard and as I remember he was was pretty sklilful for a big man - or perhaps my memories are rose tinted?

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  34. I don't really get your smug comment and how it might apply to this article. The criticism of AC is probably a bit harsh but I doubt he fits with most 'ammers fans' ideas of how they should play :-)


    Obviously as football fans there is a bit of general banter when you're on the up but that's often because you've been on the receiving end for a while and you never know how long the good times will last.

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  35. I think you are right. Sometimes players i think he would have been happy to get rid of have stayed and done well. Partly because he had to play them due to limited resources and partly because it's been in their own interests (character) to knuckle down and do their best. If they do well BR takes the credit for "testing" them and turning theim around and if they move on they were no longer up to playing for Liverpool. Win/win

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  36. That...that...is a great .GIF, you don't really need the supporting article, the gif is descriptive enough on its ow.

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  37. ha ha ha ha "long standing pass and move" don;t make me laugh.....gerrard was lumping it up to crouch and co for years....

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  38. " How you spend the money is what is going to determine your success." which is several times more in case of Liverpool than in case of Chelsea or ManC. Do u agree?

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  39. LOL,


    Jaimie, I'm not sure if this article is meant to be funny but lolloping and the pony falling over the exercise ball made laugh.
    Your the first person to say what I was thinking about Andy Carroll when we bought him.
    Dalglish's reputation as a Manager will never recover from that in my estimation.

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  40. Did i just not explain that to you twice already?

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  41. I said the other day to a friend that he will soon be known as one of the best players in the world. It's now just watching his confidence grow. Brendan has been brilliant with him. His speed and workrate, coupled with his balance and natural body strength means he is so difficult to stop. He is also unselfish and a great team player.

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  42. Shloud be a donkey tho ;-)

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  43. For me, the worst part of the Carroll transfer was that Sturridge was available at the same time and we didn't go for him or include him as part of the Torres deal. Out of the 3 strikers mentioned, Sturridge went on to score the most goals out of the 3 strikers after their respective moves:


    Sturridge (Bolton) 12 games - 8 goals, loan
    Carroll (Liverpool) 9 games - 2 goals, £35 million
    Torres (Chelsea) 18 games - 1 goal, £50 million


    So, from all that last minute drama on that fateful evening, it looks like Bolton Wanderers were the ones who did the best business, as far as acquiring a new striker were concerned

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  44. Only ever be one crazy horse - the legend Emlyn Hughes !

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  45. He is a game changer! He has the pace and the skills that can loosen any defense and give the strikers space to get through. He's only 19 and yet scored 3 goals and assisted 6, and won a couple of penalties as well. He's improving with every match. In the beginning he was just a fast winger who loses the ball too much. Now he can hold on to the ball, play through balls, dribble better, break through, and shoot well. All of this improvement in only one year, and if he continues like this he will be one of the best wingers in the world. Furthermore, lately Rodgers has been playing him as a playmaker, even though it's not his original position, and yet he adapted and performed well. He may not be the Ronaldo type now but he's improving and he's a very good player right now, so leave the kid alone.

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