Can we really pull off a transfer masterclass?

The unlikely transfer
As soon as news broke regarding our rather audacious bid to bring Andy Carroll back to Newcastle, I always knew that the headlines would be dominated by it for the next few days or so.

And so it is proving with numerous and plentiful headlines reporting many different bits and bobs and potential obstacles that could stand in the way of any deal ever coming off.

Sure it’s exciting, maybe even romantic, but I honestly can’t see it happening for us as there are an awful lot of potential obstacles that could scupper any deal. I’ll go into the issues in more detail below, but suffice to say that I think this transfer, whilst sensational, won’t happen for a combination of the reasons I’m about to mention.

Liverpool are unlikely to want to lose so much money on a player they paid £35m for 18 months ago, especially when you consider that the club interested in buying the player is the very same one that ripped the eyes out of the deal and bragged about it soon after. The public humiliation would be too much for Liverpool to handle in my opinion, especially if we bought him back for less than half of what was paid for him.

Then there are the dynamics of any deal and the fine print involved which would cover wages. Carroll is reportedly on somewhere in the region of £75k a week. I’ve read a lot of people saying how he’d take a pay cut and all he’s ever wanted to do is play for Newcastle, but he was doing just that and was happy enough to sign for more money at Liverpool and move away from Newcastle in the first place wasn’t he? He’s a footballer, end of.

Apparently he is interested in a move back to Newcastle and the reason this story has been made public is to put some pressure on him to force things along himself. My question is how much of a pay cut would he really be willing to take? Or how much close would the club be willing to go to his current wage? Only Andy Carroll, his agent, and the club will know that one…

I very much doubt it is going to happen, for these and more reasons. However, to borrow a cliche, football is a funny old game and anything can happen so in this mad world that is Newcastle United I’m not going to rule it out totally.

Just 95% instead…

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

264 thoughts on “Can we really pull off a transfer masterclass?

  1. Ba cannot hold the ball up anywhere near effectively as Carroll.

    Ba is more direct when playing in the main strikers role.

    Is that enough Aussie. 😉

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  2. Ice @223 I did post last night that I read that he is far from happy with Toon over the Olympics.maybe he’s still pissed at them.

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  3. Stuart-Would you agree you against Barca being the best team of the last four years or so-at least the most successful in the world. What variation do they have?

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  4. @Liam

    You actually think Ba and Carroll are very different? Wow! Come join the vast majority and leave Aussie singing your song. 😛

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  5. Ice-wouldn’t read too much into that, some people just don’t like pulling cheesy grins on photos! Maybe he’s looking for a more badass pic for his facebook page eh? 😉

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  6. Troy your spot on about the mob being proved right, we still have some fans saying that we shouldn’t waste Jabbas money , and that this player and that player is a waste of money, but up to now the 2 best players that jabba has bought are the 2 most expensive. When they were willing to feed off the scraps that Jabba would throw them, some of us remained steadfast that he needed to spend some of the Carroll money on a top player ?? Bang next think we know he listens and brings in Cisse.
    Even Jabba realised that sometimes you have to pay for quality 😀

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  7. Demba ba can play on the left-he played there for WHam and bagged those 7 goals in 13-its been proven.

    He had a lean spell and was very unlucky on several occasions not to score whilst Cisse was out of this world. I don’t know why people keep fretting about it.

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  8. Stuart, wow, Carroll is a whole inch taller than Ba… Can’t remember seeing BA running at defenders with any sucess. He is more of a back to goal style of player… BA can score with his head, just like Carroll. As far as holding the ball up, Carroll offers nothing more than BA.. I’m not seeing it as clearly as you obviously.. And a small speedy forward like Gamero wouldn’t add any variation, your having a laugh surely…

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  9. Newkie says:
    July 16, 2012 at 15:43
    Stuart-Would you agree you against Barca being the best team of the last four years or so-at least the most successful in the world. What variation do they have?

    Nothing now and it showed against Chelsea. They did have variation when Villa played, but then again I think using the example of a team that has Lionel Messi is a little ridiculous.

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  10. aussie magpie fan says:
    July 16, 2012 at 15:49

    Well I’m astounded that you think Ba and Carroll are so alike. To be honest I cannot remember the last time I saw Ba hold the ball up and wait for others to join as he normally turns the defender or tries to turn the defender.

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  11. I wonder why Jabba doesn’t save himsel a few quid and get rid of Carr and let a few of the talent spotters on here do the job, or maybe even get a few of the tactical wizards on here to help with team building and set up. 😆 😆 😆

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  12. Stuart, to be fair BA did seem reluctant to pass the ball late in the season when he was around the box. The lack of goals probably contributed to that.. As far as Carroll goes, I personally think he has a terrible first touch.. I watched a lot of Liverpool games this year and I didn’t miss his presence in our team after seeing him flounder about.. There is a reason Liverpool want rid mate..

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  13. Liam – I can actually see it happening. It’s been a while since we saw European competition… or a cup run for that matter… and I think we’ve forgotten just how many options you need for that situation.

    I think Carroll and either Ba or Cisse in a 4-4-2 would work very well. Carroll’s major contribution for us was actually holding up play and knocking down for others to score. The stats show that he’s actually improved at that since he left, so I think Pards and his team would have him working as part of the machine pretty quickly.

    That doesn’t mean that he’ll play every game, but nobody can when you’re playing 60+ games in a season.

    I think it may happen. There appear to be good reasons for each of the (presumed) barriers to come down. The only remaining one is that of balance: the size of the loss Liverpool can stomach versus the size of the outlay NUFC are willing to go to. If Andy’s not on that plane, it suggests that there may be an overlap after all – and I can’t see Carroll signing for anyone else but us; what would be the point?

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  14. thats why we didnt spend the £35m!
    we knew carroll would be **** and then buy him back for cheap….theres method in the magners! 😆

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  15. Stuart-well you mentioned “all the best teams” seems a bit strange if your going to pick players out and say they’re too good to be included-that’s exactly why they’re the best teams…

    Villa is a quality finisher but very much in the same mould as their front three Iniesta, Pedro, Alexis Sanchez, Messi-small, quick, obviously a great finisher. It’s not like they have a massive donkey hanging around…Against Chelsea they were all poor and Chelsea were pretty **** lucky, the odd match aside I don’t see how you can say Villa is something different when he’s very similar to what they have-just doesn’t fancy passing as much-which he shouldn’t when he usually spearheads the attack anyway..

    The other thing about the big teams is that they have complete quality throughout their squad and can essentially play two first 11s, we’re absolutely nowhere near that standard. If we sign Carroll then all we really have is Raylor to ping in crosses. That’s about as versatile as we are should we sign him

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  16. In fact Ba and Cisse themselves are pretty different types of players-but not so different that it would force us to change a system so dramatically…

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  17. @stu

    You starting to get frustrated with Aussies lack of knowledge now. ;-). I did originally then I realised he is clueless about footy and now treat him as a pupil. 😛

    @Big Dave

    Its kinda satisfying to know Jabba listened to us in the end. 😉

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  18. Aussie says;

    Can’t remember seeing BA running at defenders with any sucess

    😆 😆 not a day goes by …………… 😆

    The entertainment on here is great. The fact it’s free is fantastic 😆

    Anymore pearls Aussie? 😆

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  19. So De Jong has gone to Borussia for 15-16 million pounds? Is Carroll worth that?

    If we’re bidding 13ish for Big Andy, as others have said, that kind of money could be used elsewhere. We only bid 10 for De Jong, after all. I guess the club must think Carroll’s a better buy than De Jong if they’re offering more for Carroll. Or do I have my numbers off?

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  20. BIG DAVE
    February 1, 2011 at 08:54
    IMO Carroll couldnt have been forced to put in a transfer request in unless he wanted to go. I know MA and co are a bunch of lying cants but i just cant see how they would have forced him to do it. But as i said its easier to blame the devil than one of our own.
    A Carroll = Judas

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  21. Bloody hell this has got the juices flowing abit hasn’t it?!
    Only a few days ago we were all posting how slow and boring this window has been.

    I’m afraid I can’t see Liverpool selling for as little as £12-14m so soon after paying £35m like – not unless it was that amount plus Ba, and I’m really not sure about that like.
    The fact that nobody else would offer more than £13m doesn’t mean they’d sell to the highest bidder, it just means they’d keep him.

    As I said yesterday, I’m still not sure, just think it will be all about Carroll, if he plays and does score/if he does play, he’s been dropped and all that carry on similar to Torres at Chelsea.
    I don’t really want that for us. Don’t dispute he’s a good player but he comes with too many headlines IMO. It was nice to read good things about different players at Newcastle last season.
    I really don’t buy into the romance of it all.

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  22. Batty thanks for that but you didn’t need to go to so much bother I would have told you what I said at the time, and I still don’t believe he was forced, but I think he was badly advised by his agent and more so by your great captain of the time Tugboat so I still stand by that so what point are you trying to make or score 😕 ❓

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  23. dave you know me better than that trying to make or score grow up ya big baby i did it as i thought it was funny ,so stop ya 😥 😥 😥 😥 😆 😆 😆

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  24. 🙄 i just thought you would dig a cople of my comments up to get me back but no you say iam trying to score or make 😕 😕 well you think you know some 1 but 😕 you been chatting to solanotrumpet too much

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  25. batty fuk that was a big bite there you lanky fuk dog .
    But as I said I still don’t believe he was forced but I would take him back tomorrow because I think he has learnt a lot from it. and I think he would never make the same mistake again ❓

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  26. I think Carroll would be a good addition if we had a ‘money no object ‘ owner. He offers something a bit different to what we already have.
    We have a tightwad though, so I think the sort of money it would probably take to get Carroll could be better spent elsewhere.

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