I couldn't get a grip after Liverpool move - I never knew who we were playing and had to Google my team-mates

There are few things that hurt football supporters more than the departure of a star striker.

Goals after all are the lifeblood of the game itself, the moments of sheer unadulterated joy which make us leap into the air, scream ourselves hoarse and hug strangers with abandon.

When your club smashes its transfer record to bring in a new goal-getter, the excitement levels generally go through the roof, with fans rushing to get new shirts with their new hero’s name on the back, devouring every word from press conferences and interviews, and figuring out new songs to serenade their new star with from the stands.

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So on the face of it, when Liverpool paid £35million back in 2011 for Newcastle United’s 22-year-old 6ft 4in striker Andy Carroll, it should have ticked every box.

The big Geordie, who recently signed a short-term deal with Championship outfit Reading, had enjoyed the most significant spell of his career to date, scoring 26 goals in the previous calendar year and earning his first senior full international England caps.

Even more pertinently, Reds fans had only the previous month seen the full scale of his capabilities with Carroll playing a key role in a 3-1 win Newcastle win over Liverpool at St James Park, sealing the victory over Roy Hodgson’s hapless side himself with a thunderous long-range strike.

If a week can be a long time in politics, then a month can be a lifetime in football and the Liverpool FC of late-January 2011 suddenly seemed a far cry from the basket case club of the previous autumn.

After teetering on the brink of administration, the