I had a gin and tonic and demanded record transfer fee - I was stunned with what Liverpool did next
Alan Pardew has revealed his reaction to Andy Carroll’s record £35m transfer to Liverpool in 2011.
The Reds completed a double deadline day swoop for the Newcastle United striker and Luis Suarez, bringing the pair in for a combined £57.7m fee after selling Fernando Torres to Chelsea in a then-Premier League record £50m deal.
While Suarez proved to be one of Liverpool’s greatest ever Premier League signings, Carroll was an expensive flop. Scoring just 11 goals from 58 appearances, he was offloaded on loan to West Ham United after just 18 months in August 2012 before signing permanently the following summer for just £15m.
Only 22 at the time of his move to Anfield, and boasting only 14 Premier League goals, Carroll had to wait until March to actually make his Reds debut because of injury. The striker, who now plays in France for Amiens, has since revealed how he hadn’t wanted to leave Newcastle and had hoped he would fail his Reds medical.
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“I was injured at the time, and all I'm thinking is, ‘Please, just fail the medical’,” he recalled in 2019. “The minute I got on that helicopter I wanted to come back.
“I remember leaving Newcastle's training ground in Kevin Nolan's car because loads of people were outside. We went to his house and watched it on TV. I was like, "I'm not going". I'd just bought a house, and a cat the day before!
“But then I was told, "You're going", and that was that. Derek Llambias, Newcastle's managing director, asked me to hand in a transfer request, so I was pushed into a corner and had no choice. I wasn't wanted by them and they made it clear they
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