Whilst it’s not exactly news to suggest that Liverpool may have paid over the odds for former Newcastle United striker Andy Carroll, Kevin Keegan may have gone a little over the top in his criticism in the Sunday Express. Some choice quotes from the interview:
“He’s a decent player but he’s not a £35m player. If you’re paying £35m, you should be getting an instant, ready-made, world-class guy.”
“Liverpool paid such a big fee because of the Torres situation and they must have known, like I know and everyone else knows, that he’s not worth £35m and probably never will be.”
He also made a rather unfair comparison to Liverpool’s summer capture of Luis Suarez, who arrived at the club having won the Golden Boot with Ajax and as an established International. But this comparison misses its mark – with Suarez, Liverpool knew exactly what they were getting: a ‘special’ talent.
Despite this, Suarez came with no Premier League appearance and no guarantee that he’d make it in England. In his own way, he was as much of a gamble as Andy Carroll, who let’s not forget had plenty of Premier League experience and had impressed with Newcastle before he made a move to Liverpool.
A lack of International pedigree fails to concern me. Nobody in the English National side has really covered themselves in glory at International level. In a way I think it benefits players to avoid all the hubbub and consternation that comes with being a seasoned England International.
Andy Carroll may not have proved his worth, but Newcastle simply wouldn’t have been willing to sell for any cheaper than £35m. They knew that Liverpool made £50m from the sale of Torres and they knew what an exciting young talent Carroll is. Let’s not forget that Carroll is just 23-years-old and still has bucket loads of potential.
He’s on a long-term contract with Liverpool and will have time and chances to prove his worth to the Anfield faithful. For Keegan to suggest that he’ll never be worth £35m seems the very definition of short-sighted.
Andy Carroll was brought to Liverpool to score goals, but he’s only scored four League goals in his year at the club. Liverpool fans will be expecting more, of course and surely there’s more to come. Once Carroll scores a couple, I’m sure the floodgates will re-open and we’ll all be talking about him in more friendly terms.
Until then, we’ll just have to keep reading pundits like Keegan expounding hyperbole and ripping on the career of a confidence-shorn young British talent.
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sad to say Keegan was spot on!!
Keegan was right. He aint worth 35m. And never will be. As a matter of fact, ill go one further and say that he is quite possibly the worst striker i have ever seen play in the prem.
Horrible first touch, he’s slow, can’t read the game if you signposted it for him. His only assets are his head and a thunderous left foot. But every other attribute is lacking in every way, shape and form. I have no idea how he made it to the prem.
Sorry for all u “die hard fans” who cant see the forrest from the trees, But KD mad a massive mistake signing him, especially for 35m. He aint worth 35k…..
He could play till he is 60 but he will never be a world class striker. All ye faitfull saying give him time, he’ll come good. Kidding yourselves much? If you truly can’t see that he has no potential, will never cut it as a world clss striker than i must say that you really know sweet FA about football.
Cut our losses, get rid before we end up in the shit…
I might not totally agreed with Keegan, but surely he must be closer to the truth than what you’re suggesting. Hyperbole might depend on what side of the fence you’re sitting on. Liverpool made a jerk knee reaction by paying that amount of money for carroll! And guess what, one good turn deserves another, Chelsea also paid too much for Torres.
Keegan is 100% bang on, I wouldn’t take him back at £5M let alone £35M. Liverpool were mugged good and proper. The Greedy Judas that is Carroll and “King Kenny” are getting exactly what they deserve
Who is d writer of dis article?Do u think at all? Dat’s a question! What talent are u talkin abt at 23yrs. How old was Chicarito,Pato&Neymar when they stormd d limelight. Carol doesnt have it in him period! Pls find sthg better 2 write abt. I’m guessin u are Carol’s uncle lol.
The problem with him is you dont play to his strenths hes the best header of a football in england no good playing it to his feet,he needs balls he can attack in the air,which brings me to your ball crosses, they must be crap to miss him in the box 🙂
For any player to score a goal,he has to be given the ball.Andy scored a lot of goals for Newcastle against the same teams he is playing against now.He needs to play regular with a partner up front.
Paid £35mil for 4 league goals when we should have paid £15m for Steven Fletcher a player who can score goals for lowly wolves and a self admitted Liverpool fan! Charlie Adam for £8m we got what we paid for! Stewart Downing the £20m winger who can’t cross a ball and is so predictable it’s like watching kids play footy over the park! Suarez signed in January by the way not the summer and is probably the most influential player we have! Enrique is the best left back in the league and Craig Bellamy is quite possibly the bargain buy of the season! The English players we have had come in are overpriced, overrated and not worthy of the badge they get paid to wear day in day out. Liverpool is a big club and these players do not possess the ability, determination and commitment worthy of their ridiculous wages!
He also made a rather unfair comparison to Liverpool’s summer capture of Luis Suarez
this quote from this article just proves the author knows little to nothing about the situation
didnt the racist arrive on dirty scouse shores in jan????!!
carroll got blinded my the money!! idiot!!! has completely ruined his carrer!!
he just doesnt wont to play for liverpool he doest have the heart.
he should have never left newcastle might still be scoring goals and might have a carrer ahead of him instead of professional pony tail!
If we are comparing Torres and Carroll, then Carroll actually didnt cost us anything. 50-35 is 15. So If we paid £35m for Carroll and then received £50m for Torres, then Carrolls actual value is -£15m.
Therefore, if Newcastle were to buy him back for £15m we’ve actually made £30m on the whole deal.
However, if it was Suarez who was Torres replacement, then we have bought Suarez for £22m and Carroll for £35m totaling £57m and selling Torres for £50, Suarez and Carroll total value is only £7m.
The money wasted has been on the three midfielders of Adam, Henderson and Downing where it could have been better spent.
no no no no no,that does not cover the transfers!! so stop trying to justify the stupid fee ya paid,
what about,signing on fee,contracts,wages,agent fee’s,admin fee’s,not to mention bonus clause and the rest,kop on to urself if all transfers worked like the way you think they do there would be very few football clubs in financial troubles,remember dirty arry and his cheque book at portsmouth?? did all there transfers balance out??? noooo they went under!
truth is u over paid for a donkey who was blindind by the golden carrot ur king kenny had dangled infront of the lazy long haired excuse for an athlete!
king kenny for the fail! another cheque book manager!!!
Where do you come up with this shit. Did you even take into consideration Torres transfer fee to Liverpool? No.. How much did we pay for Torres? 20m. So how do you come up with a negative figure? Idiot. You have no idea how it all works do you?
So if you take 20m we paid, and the 50m Chelsea paid, minus Our transfer with Suarez transfer of 23m, we actually paid 28m for a sack of spuds in AC… 28m for a striker wo aint worth 28 quid…
And that is all in the presumption of going by your flawed logic. We could bought a world class striker. But we ended up with AC. Someone is accountable for our poor signings. But no-one wants to point the finger. If it were any other manager you would be calling for his head. And im saying we should get rid of KD. But in the end it is his mistakes that have lead to us signing very average British shite.
He either needs to get over this mediocre mentality, or we need a manger who is not afraid to buy quality, irrespective of what nationality they may be.
i meant not get rid of KD.. sorry…
Karim
Are you on drugs, what a complete load of utter b******S. You’re not talking about part exchanging a car you fool. What about teh money you paid for Torres in the first place? Not that i’m giving any credibility to your argument at all.
It’s bit like saying that because we beat Man utd 3-0 and Man utd beat arsenal 8-2 then we should beat Arsenal 11-2
Get back to work before your teacher realises you’re on the internet in class
And i hate it when they say Lfc is not playin to Carol’s head!,or he’s better in d air. It is called Football! Not Headball. And have we been watching d same Lfc? Carol misses almost every sitter even with d so calld head. & i cud rememba d other day Gerard sent him a long pass but his touch was damn too heavy & delivered it safely into d hands of d keeper. Mayb we shld start playin him as a left back afterwards dat was where he started for Newcastle b4 they turnd him into a striker.lol. Dalglish is realy Old school & it seems he’s yet to admit dat buyin carol was a huge mistake on his path.
I think you are spot on and that the majority of the above w#####s should pull on their Citee or Barca tops and f### off. Caroll will come good once we get better service to him starting with crosses that actually clears the first defender. I completely agree with NUFCELITE that in order to miss the big man crosses must be shite, which they have been.
Liverool got hit with a late payment penalty. He cost 47million. The Cockney mugged you and mugged the Toon cos the cash (despite buying Cisse) still sits in his back pocket. The only decent but Dalglish has made is Enrique and you got him cheap. Still Santon proving a more than adequate replacement.
The problem we have is that KK has decided to buy more overrated british players against cheaper and better foreign ones.I thought that Carroll we’ll b good signing 4us even though I’d never pay 35 mill.i think he shuould have tried harder to keep El Niño and I would love to c him and Suarez play up front for us now. In general we payed over the odds for all the British players period. I can only hope that he knows that now and starts to buy more foreign players as they r better and cheaper. YNWA.
lets all laugh at liverpool. ha ha. cant wait for the day you sack your legend better get a move on or he’ll waste another 100m on british crap.
carroll fell of a bar stool and was out injured for three months – thats what you get for a british transfer policy. hopeless scousers still believing! hendersons a championship player, no top club wanted enrique (all left sided), downing is mince, bellamy not free £125k wages and that uraguayian?????????????? losers. wont even mention beer monster adam who is blackpool at best!
Not one to rub it in like, but that 35 mil brought us players like cabaye, demba ba, cisse, santon, and still left change of about 20 mil, I wouldn’t just be having words with kenny dalglish, I’d be looking at your whole scouting network, actually don’t, I’m quite enjoying Newcastle unearthing some real quality at the minute. Haha.
the reason why carrol did well at newcastle is because newcastle played more direct play. if liverpool did this a little more youd see carrol would have alot more chances and goals