Did he walk? Or was he pushed?

It looks like a war of words is about to ensue regarding the departure of Andy Carroll to Liverpool on transfer deadline day.

We are starting to hear more reaction to the transfer that rocked the majority of Newcastle fans to the core. The 'did he walk/was he pushed' argument looks set to dominate the headlines for the forseeable future as mud is slung from both direcions. One thing is for sure, it's going to get messy.

Carroll has said today that he was forced out of the club. He claims that he was backed into a corner by Derek Llambias and Mike Ashley and was made to feel unwanted at his hometown club.

That may or may not have been true, but at the end of the day there is no way a player can be forced to hand in a written transfer request, even if he was apparently asked to do so by Derek Llambias. There is a fantastic word out there, which is only two letters long and goes something like 'no'.

Naturally the club, namely Alan Pardew, have responded today and said that nobody was forced to leave. Pardew claims that Carroll wanted a new contract yesterday, only three months after signing a long term deal, and once it was established that Andy wouldn't be getting a new contract he handed in a transfer request.

Pardew was visibly angry when he was interviewed by Sky Sports earlier today. He insisted that he wanted to keep Carroll and stressed that he is unhappy that he now has a weaker squad than the one we started off with at the start of the window.

I just don't know who to believe. At the end of the day I don't trust Ashley, Llambias, or Pardew, but on the other hand I just can't see how Carroll could be forced to hand in a transfer request. Remember, all bids had been rejected until that request went in, and as Pardew said, Carroll didn't have to get in the helicopter, or put in the request.

As I said earlier, it's going to get messy as both sides fight their corner. Nobody wants to look like the bad guy, which is why both sides are putting their case across. We'll probably never know the full extent of what happened but I have no doubt that the rumours will continue.

This one is going to roll...