The day after Andy Carroll puts in a match winning performance against the clubs biggest (but not bitterest) rivals and a story emerges about Liverpool trying to offload him. The rumours centre around a reported attempt by LFC to swap him for Man City's unsettled Carlos Tevez. I'm the first person to dismiss paper talk and I've never believed any story until it's actually happened but the club have been fairly quiet in the way of a denial so there is possibly some truth in it. With the struggle for goals this season it is a transfer that would make sense and certainly give us more firepower, Tevez has many undesirable personality traits but his performances on the pitch have been impressive and consistent for a good few years and he always seems to find the net when it matters.
Journalists are saying this is the beginning of the end for Carroll in the red shirt but I don't think this is so. Think about it, if Barcelona were having problems with Lionel Messi wouldn't we all be delighted if we tried to sign him in a swap deal for Suarez or Gerrard, it doesn't mean you don't want either player, it just means there may be a way to improve the side and the manager wouldn't be doing his job properly if he didn't explore this. I remember before Danny Murphy made significant improvements to his attitude and performances Gerard Houllier saying he'd turned down the chance to sign Thomas Rosicky because we already had Murphy and I felt really disappointed, it felt like the boss hadn't put the needs of the team first.
If it is true Liverpool have tried to swap our number nine for City's want away Argentinian they will have been well aware of two things. Firstly the likelihood was that City were going to say no, and secondly it was always probable that the story would emerge, not least with the presence of the never shy Kia Joorabchian in the Tevez camp. With this in mind it seems like making the move would inevitably lead to the 'Carroll's time is up' stories that seem to be developing and Kenny is not daft, he would have been well aware of all of this. I think if Liverpool have made moves towards this transfer it could well have been to give Andy Carroll a big kick up the backside and make him realise how big a club Liverpool is and how you must be on top of your game at all times or you will be moved on. Is it purely coincidence that Carroll played so well against Man Utd or has King Kenny pulled of a motivational masterstroke? It's all possible.
Lets hope his performance on Saturday will kickstart his season and when Luis is back we can have a steady and productive partnership up front. Andy Carroll is one of the players on the fringes of the England squad and there is a big international tournament coming up in five months aswell as a cup final place to play for in late February and if all of this doesn't inspire him to play at the levels we know he can then nothing will. Let's all get behind him and we may just get big rewards from our big signing.
No comments:
Post a Comment