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Did Rodgers Make The Right Call?

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BACK in January 2010, Liverpool sold Fernando Torres to Chelsea for a record-breaking fee of £50 million. At the time, Liverpool’s fan-base was beside themselves with anger and grief, not to mention that we’d shelled out a good percentage of that fee for Andy Carroll.

Since then, Torres has gone from most feared striker in the world to shadow of his former devastating self, whilst Liverpool have found a new, more deadly idol in one Luis Suarez.

It all worked out in the end, as they say.

Unlike Suarez, Carroll has struggled badly since his massive move from North-East. Most Reds can see that he has some potential, but for the fee he was bought for we expected a lot more. A decent end to the previous season, and a relatively impressive cameo at the Euros for England saw Carroll’s stock rise significantly and many of us were looking forward to an in-form striker returning to the side for the new season. Then, Brendan Rodgers happened…

Shortly after Rodgers began his first foray – as Liverpool manager – into the transfer market, it became clear that Andy Carroll’s days were numbered. First, the new man tried to foist the big front man off on his former club and then, when that failed, pretty much anybody else that was interested.

The reaction from a lot of fans was of confusion. Surely after coming into some kind of form, Andy Carroll had a future at the club?

As time went on, it became clear that nobody was going to pay even half of what we did for him, so the only option became to loan him out to anybody that was interested. As the saga dragged on, many fans reaction was slightly over the top. Sure, he’d had a decent game or two toward the end of the season, and scored a great goal for England in the summer but was he really worth all this fuss?

Either way, many fans were not impressed with the attempts of the new manager to move the striker out before he’d even seen him play. The biggest – and most laboured point – being: without him, we will not have a ‘plan B’.

By the end of the window though, ‘Big Andy’ was gone, so all arguments were moot but when Liverpool struggled for goals at the start of the season, and then Borini’s untimely injury left us with only one senior striker, it started to look like a mistake.
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However, as we approach the mid-way point of the January window, things are beginning to look up. We’ve brought in another England international with a more promising track-record (and proven EPL experience), have an Italian striker nearing full-fitness and a world-class Uruguayan hitting his stride and leading scoring charts left and right.

Meanwhile, down at West Ham, Andy Carroll isn’t doing too much to impress. Having been injured almost straight away, Carroll missed a month earlier in the 2012-13 season and was ruled out for 2 months in December. In that sense, we really dodged a bullet, as we’d still be paying his wages while he was sitting at home, twiddling his thumbs for weeks.

But his injury problems aside, Carroll has – despite the best efforts of the London-based press to convince us that Allardyce got the better end of that deal – largely failed at the Boleyn Ground. A single, solitary strike in 10 games has meant that West Ham are now looking to cut the deal short.

I have questioned a great deal of the manager’s decisions since he joined the club, and I was a little concerned about his decision in August of last year to get rid of Andy Carroll, but with his loan deal looking sketchy and the player likely to be out until the end of the month, it appears that Rodgers made the right call.

In his absence we’ve seen the emergence of youngsters such as Suso and Sterling, and have now added Daniel Sturridge to the forward-line to accompany Suarez and Fabio Borini, so we’re now looking pretty healthy in terms of attacking options. If the big striker does return to Liverpool sooner rather than later, then he may well find himself spending a lot of time on the bench, before being shipped out in the summer.

Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, but the manager must have seen this one in his tea-leaves, so I’ll give you this one, Brendan, it looks like got it right.
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I'm a 32 year old Liverpool fan, living in the heart of the City Centre. I've supported the club since the day I was born and have been writing articles for L4L for over 3 years, writing close over 350 articles in that time. My favorite player of the past generation is Sami Hyypia.

I am the current editor for L4L, with my day job being in R&D for the NHS.

58 comments

  • GAZ says:

    YES we overpaid for Carroll , absolutely no doubt …… but he is still a quality player , way better than what Rodgers has signed

    Carroll is a 15m player ,and will be sought after in the summer by a lot of clubs

    • Santosh says:

      Yeah mate, for all the bitching Rodgers does about the squad he inherited his signings are the worst. Not sure he is the guy to take is forward especially after the way he approached the game against man u.

  • segun says:

    David stop heaping unneccesary praises on BR it will really go a negative way 4 d club if u continue these way,BR is makin a lot of mistake and these is sending we faithful fans away.I believe u don’t expect me 2 go support man u or chelsea.we need 2 make first 4 either way.

  • redrum says:

    Carroll is still better than all of Rodgers buys . But dont forget Rodgers only has a plan A ( what kind of fool only has one way of playing ? ) , so Carroll certainly wouldn’t fit into his negative tiki taki nonsense that bores us every week

    Question about Carroll should be – not whether Rodgers should use him , the question should be – Will next seasons manager want to use him ?

  • Lennon says:

    My god looking at these comments after 10 month from this article, you just have to wonder: how much our club has changed and i am sure these guys dont think that way now do they?

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