With Premier league side Liverpool actively chasing the signature of Fulham striker Clint Dempsey, further questions will be raised about the future role of England striker Andy Carroll at Anfield.
New Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, who was handed the reins at Anfield after a disappointing league campaign under the guidance of Kop legend Kenny Dalglish, has already made it public that the option of loaning and Andy Carroll won’t be counted out.
However, the terms of a loan deal will of course have to be under the correct circumstances in order to benefit both Liverpool and the team that Andy Carroll would end up playing for, so the better option of trading him away, and Liverpool counting their losses, may yet be still on the table.
Liverpool spent £35 million on Andy Carroll in luring him away from Newcastle United in January 2010.
It was a big gamble for Liverpool, and his goalscoring feats for the Magpies have not been reproduced in the red of Liverpool. There have been times during his short Anfield career that he has had to spend time on the bench, becoming nothing more than a bit part player. But, with England manager Roy Hodgson deciding to take the Liverpool striker to Euro 2012, it opened up a new shop window for Carol, as he impressed for his country.
So where next for Carroll? Because of the large fee that Liverpool shelled out to capture his signature in the first place, sending him out on loan could seem like a waste of money and input from the club.
Carroll’s former club Newcastle have been actively pursuing a loan deal for the striker, to take him back to where he really made a name for himself in scoring 31 goals in 90 league appearances. But Liverpool have dismissed Newcastle’s offers as being ambitious, and AC Milan and West Ham have also been hoping to capitalise on the unsettled striker’s position at Anfield. Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says that for now, Carroll is a Liverpool player, despite all the rumours of the impending departure which has been written about him. The fact that Liverpool want Clint Dempsey, one of the top performing forwards in the Premier League last season, puts further rocky ground under Carroll’s Anfield feet.
So why has the £35 million man found himself in a position of being unwanted? It is because of Carroll’s style of play not matching up with the football ethos of Rodgers. Rodgers, who moved from Swansea after earning himself tremendous plaudits for the way that he had them playing, was taken by Liverpool because of his managerial style. Rodgers likes to see his side with the ball at their feet, passing the ball around and keeping it comfortably in midfield, so much so that Swansea were likened to the great Barcelona. Andy Carroll, a towering, old fashioned centre forward, doesn’t fit into that style at all.
He needs to feed off long balls and crosses in to the penalty area and so he is simply part of a puzzle that doesn’t not fit.
A deal for Dempsey, could see Liverpool recuperating some of the American’s fee by letting Carroll go. But how cheaply would they sell him for?
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