‘I’m Gutted, I Was Pushed Out The Door’ – Andy Carroll

Chris Wright

1st, February 2011

12 Comments

By Chris Wright

A ‘gutted’ Andy Carroll has reportedly claimed that he was ‘pushed out the door’ at Newcastle yesterday, despite all and sundry reporting that the 22-year-old had submitted a transfer request to help grease the wheels of his £35 million move to Liverpool.

The Daily Star have ‘obtained’ text messages sent by Carroll to Steve Wraith, editor of fanzine Toon Talk, in which he seemingly admits that he had little to no say in becoming the subject of the eighth biggest transfer of all time.

Carroll is alleged to have agreed to let the Star publish the texts, to air ‘his side of the story’.

The texts were sent between 13:00pm and 16:00pm, just after Carroll had been informed that Newcastle had accepted Liverpool’s renewed, £35 million bid for his services:

Text One: “[Newcastle] have kind of said ‘we don’t want u’ but want me to say I wanna go. And I said I don’t wanna go.”

Text Two: (In reply to question: ‘what’s happening?’) “I don’t know mate. Gutted tho.”

Text Three: “[Newcastle] said they wanted the money.”

Text Four: “Gutted to be leaving, but I was kind of pushed out the door.”

Text Five: “Just what I’ve just said really. Gutted to be leaving my home club but I was practically told to go. Don’t want to leave. that’s why I signed 5 year deal.”

It’s hard to feel empathy toward Carroll given his past misdemeanours, though I get the impression that he’s not just covering his proverbial in preparation for the next time he decides to have a shandy or two down the Bigg Market.

On the other hand, it would be equally naive to suggest that the promise of £80,000-a-week wouldn’t do strange things to a home-town heroes’ undying loyalty.

Of course, at £35 million, I’m not 100% sure if I’m still asleep or not – so this could all just be a projection of my dormant mind. The world seems to have taken on dreamy, ethereal hues after yesterday’s madness marathon.

Any thoughts?

UPDATE: Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has countered this morning, telling the Shields Gazzette that Carroll asked to leave the club after seeing his plea for a new contract fall on deaf ears.

Said Pards:

“I disagree [that Carroll was forced out of the club]. He had a contract here for five years, and at some point it would get renewed, but for him to sign in October and it get renewed in January – where would it stop?

“Personally, I’m disappointed. He’s a lovely lad, and I really like him, but it was his decision, and you can’t change that. Was this about football? That’s what you have to ask. I don’t think it was.”

Who to believe?

Posted in Liverpool, Newcastle Utd, Transfers & Rumours

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12 Comments

  1. JK says:

    Great move for LFC it appears that losing Torres could be the best bit of business LFC have done in a long time. Unlucky not to land Adam but im sure that will happen in summer. I welcome Carroll to Anfield with great delight im happy to have a player that will work hard for the team and give us something different. An threat from set plays is a new one for LFC so good times ahead.

    As for Newcastle well the boy said it the cash was more important to them so I wudnt like to thing Andy should shoulder the blame on this one.

  2. Tom says:

    A text message to a fanzine? why not say all this publicly? why not just refuse to hand in a transfer request and say “if you want to sell me you can but I want to stay”

    Theres no Loyalty in football, the money and the agents turned Carrolls head. treble your wages andy!!!

    Football is dead, if a hometown hero playing in his dream job can be sold “with or without” his permission then we are nothing but an unambitious feeder club for the big teams, Say goodbye to Tiote, Enrique and Barton in the summer. Arfa we’ll get fit then sell for double or treble what we’ve paid. Midtable down to relegation places is best we can hope for now. Hope their massive gamble doesnt destroy us again.

    As for Carroll I hope he rips both his ACL’s in his debut the Money grabbing traitor. He may well as be a mackem now, thats how low my opinion of him is now.

  3. Glenn United says:

    I just hope ashley gets what he deserves, Expect a massive protest, expect fans not to even eneter the ground, expect ashley to get death threats, expect everything possible! I want Ashley gone, sell the club you Fat cockney twat! YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE CLUB AGAIN AND WE WILL BE RELEGATED AGAIN!!! THANKS YOU FAT BASTRD!!! Oh and I hope Andy Carroll shows he doesn’t want to play for Liverpool by mistimining and miskicking every ball he can, or say he’s injured and can’t play like Owen did for us! He wouldn’t want to play and score against us or he’ll never be welcomed back…Andy prove to us that you want to be in NEWCASTLE MATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Martin says:

    I ain’t been funny but he looks really sad in the above photo. At the end of the day the lad DID NOT have to sign the contract with Liverpool. If he hadn’t he would have had the backing of the Newcastle supporters and potentially forced Mike Ashley’s hand to get out. I really think Liverpool turned his head and couldn’t knock back nearly 3x his Newcastle wage. The lad just needs to be honest and say it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

  5. Towson Tom says:

    If Newcasle had offerered the reds a staight exchange Andy for Fernando two weeks ago, I would still have thought it a great deal for the reds, always providing Kenny can tame him. This is no bad feeling towards Fernando he’s a great lad and I wish him all the luck (as long as it does’nt rub off on Chelsea) But I believe Andy at 22 is very much the future. I go back to long before the Shankley era and know there is no sentiment in football and things must move on, right now I see an over abundance of right sided midfield players at the club and think Kenny will have dificulty keeping them all happy, assuming we play 4 4 2 The two new guys up front how do you fit in Dirk, steve, Lucas (also the future), Mireles, Cole, Maxi, and a couple of youngsters comming through?

  6. Statsrules says:

    Clearly just bullshit… reputable newspapers make up a load of bollocks football stories, why would the Star be any different…

  7. adam says:

    The problem now is that as a Liverpool player Andy’s not really going to be in a position to repeat those statements, be they truly made by him in the first place or not. He might be only just turned 22 and that would explain his willingness to send a few revealing but ill-advised text messages, but once senior Anfield officials get in his ear he’ll be left in no doubt over what he should or should not be saying to the press. The best he’ll be able to do is say that it was hard to leave the club he’s supported his whole life but that Liverpool were “an opportunity too good refuse”. Perhaps LFC will be generous and allow the lad to express his love for Newcastle United in some more detail. As much as they are the brunt of many jokes, scousers are not stupid enough to think that this player would suddenly forget that playing for Newcastle was his only dream for his entire footballing life. No one is going to raise much of a fuss if he says as much before getting on with the business of playing football. His new club is concerned more with how he performs on the pitch and as long as he gives absolutely 100% every time the fans will have not the least bit of concern that he’ll always have a piece of Newcastle in his heart.

  8. gaptooth says:

    this revelation is a bit OTT if u ask me , lets be honest with ourselves , loyalty in football is almost non existant, as it is in life in general.

    any of the bloggers questioning his decision are hypocrites cos if you had a chance to move to a better place of work, double your wages , work with better people who were more qualified than you , people who would help you improve – you would be an imbecile to turn that down , no matter how well u like your former place of work.

    life is about progression and thats all the boy has done – he has moved forward

    the talk of being gutted and all these texts are similar to the reports coming from dutch papers stating suarez would not join if torres was sold, its all newspaper column fill and nothing more. whats done is done.

    even a suggestion that carroll will play within himself is nonsense. who would not seek to repay their employer when they are being rewarded so highly. and once he see’s the set up at anfield and at melwood , he will hopefully mature and become a consummate professional

    torres was amazing for the reds – a true world class striker from 2007 – 2009 but with carroll and suarez we have bought 2 players with a lot to prove who work for the team.
    i think the general consensus from the reds fans is excitement more than anything else
    and so it should be

  9. Stuart Towell says:

    I’m a Newcastle Fan! Yes I am gutted Andy has gone, more on the lines of my team now having very little killer instinct upfront. I hope the lads can step up to the plate and keep us in this division. I would like to say then rebuild a bit in the Summer, but like all my fellow toon fans i am sure, realise; there will be minimal reinvestment in the squad in the summer.

    All the money will simply get swallowed up into ‘keeping the club stable’. It’s a joke at a mess my club keeps getting put into, all because of one arrogant, frustrating moron that can’t find the road out of Newcastle.

    On the other hand, liverpool have finally pulled their finger out and showed some ambition. Andy Carroll has proved he can hit and head a ball, suarez has a wicked shot on him. I am excited to see the new look front line in action. Although I am a Newcastle fan I still like to watch exciting football no matter what the team (excluding smoggies and mackems). Fernando Torres was just underperforming everywhere, maybe Chelsea will restore him who knows. I think Liverpool have turned a corner, unfortunately so have Newcastle but our’s is going in the wrong direction.

    No matter what happened; Andy Carroll you are a great talent with a bright future… all the best mate!

  10. Gibby says:

    I still can’t see where the valuation comes from. He’s got 1 international cap and not even completed a full season in the top flight but in saying all that he’s the type of player i think could be massive if he his the ground running and having a player like suarez feeding off him could be a strong partnership, but surely the priority was a defender. How can you have over £50 million+ up front and a £2 million defender in Kyri !!! Chelsea realised they’re leaking goals for fun so sign a CH & CF ! Obviously King Kenny’s theory is we’ll score more than you !

  11. Zach says:

    I dislike seeing Carrol go, primarily as there is no real replacement for him. I am a Newcastle fan, but I cannot jump on the usual Ashley dog-pile on this decision. If Liverpool want to hand over that amount of money for a very good, nickedup player, you almost have to take it. I will be happy to criticise the idiotic way that the club is sure to use (or not use) the funds.

    I also don’t blame Carrol at all. An opportunity to play for a club like Liverpool for three times what you were currently being paid is going to cause anyone to jump at it. Especially a 22 year old footballer.

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