Liverpool’s former record signing Andy Carroll knew only a handful of our players when he signed for the club in 2011.
The striker, who has just re-signed for Newcastle after being released by West Ham, arrived for a then massive £35m after we sold Fernando Torres to Chelsea – but it simply didn’t work out for him at Anfield.
Stylistically, Carroll is a forward who needs long-ball football – plain and simple.
Kenny Dalglish and then Brendan Rodgers wanted to keep it on the deck and create chances via through-balls, which was alien to the young Englishman at the time.
Injuries also hampered his progression, but it seems his immaturity may have also been a factor…
“When I was here [at Newcastle], I’d go home, mess about with my mates, play football, go out, whatever, but I’d never watch football, I never knew any players,” he told Newcastle’s club website.
“I’d come in on the Friday or wake up on the Saturday morning saying, ‘who are we playing?’ It was just completely oblivious to all the football that was going on. I would work at the training ground and knew my tactics, but until we had a meeting I didn’t know who we were playing, unless I asked someone.
“When I was in the helicopter down to Liverpool, I was like, ‘I know Stevie G [Gerrard], I know [Jamie] Carragher. Who else?’ My agent at the time had to tell me, and I would get it on Google and find out the team. So that’s actually a true story.
“It’s bad because it’s Liverpool players, but it’s not disrespectful – I just literally didn’t watch football, so I didn’t know.”
It’s mad to think Carroll probably didn’t know Luis Suarez, the striker pictured with above, when they arrived together on deadline day in that fated January!
We wish the striker plenty of luck back at his boyhood club, and think everyone would agree, he probably should never have left in the first place.
The days of Liverpool making such reckless transfer decisions are very much over, of course.