There are very strong rumours that 'Pool will be prepared to accept as little as £15 million for Carroll, representing a £20 million loss on his purchase, alone. Pundits on Talk5hite were also questioning whether the likes of Adam and Downing have the skill-set to fit into Rodgers' plans, which could cost the club a further £10 million (or more) in losses. Now, us neutrals are finally getting to see the real picture as to why "King" Kenny was sacked. It was not merely his inept handling of Klan-gate, but his complete and utter failings in the transfer market. Rodgers has been given carte blanche to dismantle everything that Kenny-boy set out to achieve at 'Pool, underlining his utter failure at the club. Mousers will, no doubt, put a gloss on the facts in order to save at least some shred of dignity for their former legend, but the painful truth is that he failed the club and he failed the fans. Meanwhile, it is being reported that 'Pool insiders doubt that they'll get any offers of even £15 million for Carroll (dubbed by many as "the donkey of Merseyside"), and they will have to loan him out to Big Sam's WHFC, where the striker's tactic of "hanging around the goal waiting for the defenders to lump it up to me" would fit nicely with that club's style of play.
As I said in the other thread, Danny Graham played a similar role for Swansea last season and did pretty well for himself, so I don't buy this talk of Carroll not fitting in with Rodgers' plans for a second. More likely, he needs to raise some transfer funds and has realised there's very few members of the squad who could actually do that without crippling the squad without being adequately replaced (i.e. Reina, Agger, Enrique, Gerrard, Suarez), which means Carroll and a couple of others (Johnson, Maxi, and probably one of Skrtel or Coates - and, if Rodgers has any common sense, he'll accept any serious offers for Joe Cole) will be moved on to rebuild the squad - although, personally, I'd keep Carroll and take the hit on Downing and Henderson instead.
That would hold some water for me but for the fact that the club is going to take such a huge hit on what they paid for him. In all honesty, who would pay more than £7 million for him?
His value will always be kept reasonably high by two factors - firstly Liverpool can always claim "potential", and secondly there's the English Premium to factor into his fee. Look at the £12m Arsenal paid for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for another example of this. If they want to raise some cash, they could easily get £5-7m each for Henderson, Cole, Johnson, Downing and Aquilani, which should get them a central midfielder who can pass and a decent winger.
Ah, you see, I am using common sense - which is why I never applied to manage Liverpool in the first place!
I think Rodgers realises that Carroll simply isn't going to get any real gameplay at the club, and 'Pool cannot keep a player that the club paid £35 million in the reserves. It would drag morale down. As embarrassing as it will be for 'Pool to expose Kenny's complete failure as a manager, it will be less embarrassing in the long run than keeping him at the club and never using him. Better to get as much as they can now for him, than leave him to see out his contract in the reserves and lose him for nothing. I don't know who it was who advised Carroll that it was a good idea to move to 'Pool, but that advice has probably cost Carroll his EPL future. Certainly, he'd never play for Spurs, as he is far too limited, and Levy tends not to make those kinds of mistakes. Pav had a bad attitude, but none could question his technical ability. Carroll, as hard as he works, simply lacks the skills to be anything other than a lump who "nods it in the back of net" occasionally. I put him in the "Duncan Ferguson" class of player.
I think that the main problem is that they've not only changed managers, but changed to one whose style of play is radically different to the last one. Downing and Carroll should actually be pretty effective together, if used correctly, but Dalglish didn't do so and Rodgers won't, as they don't fit into his system. I'm not sure where quite a number of their current squad fit in, to be honest. The likes of Cole and Maxi could work their way back in and some of the youngsters will relish the opportunity, but Adam, Carragher, Carroll, Spearing and the like are in trouble, I think.
Kenny walks into a supermarket and see's an old lady coming out carrying 6 bags of shopping, "Can you manage" he asks her. "No, and neither can you, you useless twat!" she replies
Apparently Rodgers isn't that confident: "Rodgers says it could be years before Liverpool are any good" http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/liverpools-brendan-rodgers-calms-talk-1140163
"Liverpool are ready to make a £25m loss on striker Andy Carroll this summer, with former club Newcastle preparing a £10m bid to bring him back to the North East." (The Independent) This would just be hilarious.
