Oh Carol!! I am but a fool, darling I love you though you treat me cruel! So sang Neil Sedaka.
It’s safe to say that he wasn’t talking about Newcastle’s Andy Carroll, who is currently on his way to completing a move to Kenny Dalglish’s Liverpool following a reported £35 million bid. Initially, Newcastle rejected the bid, after a more substantial figure was offered, and the player himself had placed a transfer request with the club, Newcastle finally relented and let the transfer go ahead.
It’s fair to say, the move will be greeted with some dismay by Newcastle fans. Carroll is, after all, the focal point of their attacking line-up. His 11 goals this season have helped secure a respectable mid-table position for a club who were expected to struggle.
A throw-back to the days when centre-forwards were real men, Carroll has a talismatic quality about him, and his posession of the Number 9 shirt makes him virtually royalty on Tyneside. Although a rough diamond, Carroll has shown already that he has the quality to become a massive player for the Magpies.
Liverpool’s interest in Carroll has obviously grown since the news that Chelsea are ready to offer £50 million for Fernando Torres. This deal obviously paves the way for that to happen. With him gone, Dalglish needs to recruit a striker and Carroll is an obvious choice. It would be a real opportunity for Kenny to build his own Liverpool team, and a player like Carroll would be a real change towards a new era at Liverpool.
I should make it clear, at this point, that I am a Newcastle fan and my heart is outraged. My head, however, is alot more realistic. £35 million is an obscene amount of money. In actual fact, it’s a Liverpool record. The transfer fee on the table now could be closer to £40 million. Newcastle could buy 3-4 decent players with that kind of money.
How much they can do with it so late on Deadline Day is another matter, but at least over the summer we’ll see some real investment. Also, what else should we Newcastle fans expect from Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias? They weren’t going to turn down that kind of money for a home grown talent like Carroll.
In defense of Ashley, and it’s not often you’ll hear those words from a Toon fan, this offer was going to come at some stage and I think he may have held on just long enough to get some real cash on the table. I suppose we should be grateful that the likes of Barton, Nolan, Collocini and Jose Enrique will still be with us until the end of the season.
Quite frankly, I’d have been more upset if we’d lost any of them. As it is, the spine of the team is still intact. Naturally, the doom-mongers amongst us are claiming this is a precursor to relegation. But we’ve actually achieved some good results without Carroll, so who’s to say we won’t stay up without him?
If I was a Liverpool fan, I’d be asking is Carroll worth a figure like that? He’s played 11 goals this season, and managed 19 in the Championship last season. It smells a little of panic buying to me. Undoubtedly, Carroll is a talented player, and he’s incredible in the air but his off-field reputation would concern me.
A city like Liverpool, whose drinking establishments and clubs I am well acquainted with, would be a paradise to young Andy Carroll. Anyone out on Concert Square and Matthew Street should keep an eye out for a long haired, tall, wild-eyed Geordie!
It looks to be a done deal now. All that’s left is for Carroll to complete a medical, which should be interesting given that he’s currently suffering from a thigh injury which has seen him out since December. Torres’ move to Chelsea is surely a foregone conclusion.
Neil Sedaka’s words seem quite an appropriate way to finish, with some adjustments……
‘Oh Carroll! I am but a fool, Andy I love you, you treat defenders cruell. You hurt them, and you make them cry, but if you leave us, I will surely die. Andy there will never be another, because we love you so. Don’t ever leave us, say you’ll never go!’
Are you a fan of Newcastle or 50’s pop stars? twitter.com@petermagpie!
