Carroll cannot become the next Aquilani

IT is the 31st January 2011, transfer deadline day and Sky Sports News are reporting that Liverpool have put in a bid of £20m for Andy Carroll.

At that point, few would have believed that the final figure to prize away the Geordie giant would be £35m. It would be Liverpool’s most expensive signing and the most expensive British player ever.

At the time, the move felt like a gamble for the Reds. Club hero Fernando Torres was allowed to make the move to Chelsea after his transfer request and although Carroll had looked a threat in his first real Premier League campaign at Newcastle, he was by no means a guaranteed success as a replacement.

However, the move was exciting. New owners were spending big money, Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool’s last title winning manager, was back at the helm and a new prospect would soon be strutting his stuff in LFC’s famous red shirt.

The feel good factor was an excellent way for fans to avoid the root of the Andy Carroll question. Hodgson had been deposed and we looked through red-tinted spectacles and saw a glorious future in which Suarez and Carroll punished opponents with strength and guile, finesse and power. The two players with contrasting talents would work in tandem in a combination that would terrorise opponents and offer problems than no one team could solve.

And while there were reservations about the price paid for the new no. 9, no one anticipated that just 18 months later the same man would be deemed surplus to requirements and ultimately farmed out on loan to West Ham United.

While Rodgers has maintained that the reason he has sought to move Carroll on is due to the lack of playing time that the England striker would receive at Anfield, there is certainly enough to suggest that the reason is not that simple.

Indeed, if Carroll had not cost quite so much money when he signed he would probably be a reasonable bet to be staying at Liverpool. His premium price gave him a fairly hefty wage which Rodgers is keen to shed from the bill but on top of that the re-sale value of the North East striker diminishes as time ebbs away from that extraordinary transfer deadline signing. It is therefore in Rodgers’ interest to sell the player as quickly as possible to have the money to re-invest in the team.

This is the problem for Liverpool.

We have made this mistake before and it was a gross transfer error. When Alberto Aquilani waltzed through the door for £20m as Alonso’s replacement, excitement again gripped the Kop.
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This stylish midfielder would deliver like our Spanish maestro before him; he might even be better and guide us to that elusive title. The similarities between the two deals are startling. Both were bought to replace a star player at an expensive outlay, both were also injured when they signed and therefore of no use to the team straight away and both had periods of promising performance.

What happened with Aquilani was a travesty. The man who bought him was sacked and replaced by someone who didn’t want the player. Aquilani was then sent out on loan and made available for any takers. Juventus got a decent player without making an outlay other than his wages, then the following season Milan moved for him, again on loan, only to ensure that he didn’t play enough games to activate a clause making his purchase compulsory.

Finally, Liverpool let the man go for a minimal fee which only covered the additional wages they would pay the Italian anyway following his departure. Now, Aquilani has just completed a full season at Fiorentina, finishing 4th in Serie A and scoring 7 goals from midfield in the process.

Andy Carroll has not reached that point for Liverpool. He has had the first loan move and in an injury struck season, he has been unable to bolster the number of bidders for his services or maintain his price tag.

Despite an agreement with West Ham being reached for his transfer, Carroll is seeking a move to a bigger club or back to L4 to fight for a place to give himself the best chance to represent England at the World Cup. These are admirable ambitions for a player but ambitions that could cost Liverpool dearly.

If a deal cannot be tied up with West Ham, then Liverpool will have to find a suitor that is appealing for the big man and that will almost certainly involve lowering the asking price once more. Should that not tempt any bidders then the Reds will face the prospect of loaning out their record signing for a successive season.

It may well be that Rodgers does not have any space for Andy Carroll in his blueprint for a restructured Liverpool team but there can be no doubt that he is a useful asset.

Contrary to the popular myth, the Geordie is not just a throwback to years gone by, a relic from an age where players crossed the ball for a headed finish by a big striker, not that those days truly existed anyway.

When wearing a red jersey or the black and white stripes of Newcastle, Carroll has shown an ability to score different types of goals ranging from shots from distance with little back lift to powerful headers and rounding the ‘keeper with smart footwork (even if he did manufacture a ridiculous dive against Newcastle).

It would seem more appropriate to take advantage of the assets we have at our disposal. If Carroll fails to perform at Liverpool then his value would deflate at the same rate as it currently is anyway but if he helps win games then he will both retain his price and his worth to the club.

That debate though seems academic as it is clear that his Liverpool career is drawing to an early close and if a permanent deal cannot be done this summer, then we should expect history to repeat itself and for our no. 9 to surpass Aquilani in the transfer flop stakes.
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