Nolan sticks by decision to sell Carroll.

Kevin Nolan has today insisted that Newcastle were right to sell Andy Carroll and claims that the money brought into the club will benefit NUFC in the long run.

Naturally there is going to be a lot of focus on the whole Andy Carroll saga this weekend as it is the first time that former striker and former club will come together. The travelling fans are expected to make their feelings known if Carroll is fit enough to feature and I imagine that he will be a target for some considerable abuse from the Anfield Road end of the ground.

Nolan had a hand in helping Carroll make his mind up at the time, and it's perhaps understandable that the Gateshead lad would have looked to Nolan for advice given how close the two players had become during their time playing together.

"People blame Andy for going but you can't really blame anyone," Nolan told The Independent. "You can't blame the owners. The money they got was absolutely unbelievable. Andy was sort of, 'What should I do? Should I go? Should I stay?' If a club wants to pay £35m for you, anyone in any business, when they sit down and think about it, they'd say you've got to go."

"It was for the best for the club. It's worked out for us better that Andy has gone, although we'd love to have him still here and if he was we'd probably have a few more points on the board and would probably be able to build a great team around him."

"But to get £35m for him... we'd probably have taken £10m for him the season before, or £4m before we got relegated. It just shows what he's done in a short space of time. But now he's got a new chapter in his life and we've got a lot of money to spend."

Ultimately the real test of whether or not selling Andy Carroll was a good or bad thing will come in the summer when we see if the owner and management are serious about spending money to strengthen the team. I don't expect us to start throwing around cash on star players all of a sudden, but I do expect the team to be stronger than what it is now. Nolan seems to share my view:

"£35m! Come on! You can get four or five players in for that. It works the best way you can possibly think of. We're in such a fantastic position now. At the time we had to let Andy go. The money we got was astronomical."

Nolan is still in contact with Carroll, which goes back to the fact that they are mates I guess, but he does admit that Carroll has changed in the run up to the match. This game will allow everyone to get their feelings off their chest and will hopefully allow people to move on - even Carroll. Nolan continued:

"He's been a bit sheepish with me this week. He's desperate to play against the lads and it will put a bit of closure to the thing – the fact that he's not a Newcastle player, seeing us playing against him, and kicking him of course."

"It'll hit him when he sees Newcastle, the team he grew up with and loved for so long, and Liverpool, his team now, are playing against them. If he does play on Sunday he'll do his best and it's up to him to deal with that."

Some interesting stuff there. Nolan is right that the Carroll deal could be good for the club, but only if the money is spent on improving the squad and keeping hold of current players. If we do neither then what was the point in selling Carroll?

Ah well, time will tell.