NUFC.com Hits The Nail On The Head

If that is the case though - and we understand that the number nine is reluctant to leave United - then failing to agree terms would put the cat among the pigeons and blow a hole in the supposed transfer request. One therefore can only conclude that in the end, the player wanted to go as much as the club wanted him to go.

Quite where this leaves Alan Pardew though is open to question, having repeatedly said since he arrived that Carroll wouldn't leave in this window - forcefully making that point to journalists as recently as January 17th:

"They can put together whatever they like. He is not for sale. I am going to say it one last time, he is not for sale."

The difficulty in bringing in another striker at this late stage means that Ashley is taking a colossal gamble that the current squad can avoid relegation this season.

The much-praised team spirit at SJP will now also be called into question - quite what those players who have signed new deals and are about to do so will make of Carroll's departure remains to be seen.

As to the $55,468,000 question of whether Gateshead's most recent full England international is worth it.....

Given the financial issues that see United continue to trim their costs to the bone, £35m+ seems too good to turn down for a player with some recent off-field "history".

And if Carroll managed to find trouble on nights out in a one-club city, then he may be in for a rude awakening when he treads the boards in the North West. It might be an ill-advised phrase, but the jury's out on that one...

Assuming it's too late for a replacement to be acquired - and deadline day dealing last year brought us Leon Best - the prospect of that £35m going on players in the next transfer window doesn't strike us as very likely.

Could we be under new ownership by then? Would we still be in the Premier League? Gambling on the latter seems like a big fat punt but that's par for the course now round these parts.

The departure of James Milner to Aston Villa in August 2008 for £12m was deemed to have been good business, but as we pointed out at the time, you can't play a bag of money on the wing. For January 2011, read "up front".

In theory, £35m would buy you three or four perfectly serviceable players that would boost our squad - or ten Cheick Tiote's. But not within a few hours....

Aware of a desire from both Liverpool and Spurs to sign a striker with just hours of the transfer window remaining, why couldn't Newcastle have stonewalled Carroll bids, in the knowledge that the same clubs will have the same funds in the summer - and the same vacancy

Carroll by then could have scored the goals that kept United in the league, before departing to wherever he pleased, leaving Alan Pardew to invest at his leisure.

So why couldn't they wait? Because this is a dash for cash perhaps? Flogging the club's number one asset before high-tailing it out of town. We can but hope.

The farcical "turning down offers" looks to be nothing short of a pathetic, patronising pantomime and a deliberate drip-feeding of information - with the transfer request a poor attempt at a face-saving exercise.

It's worth noting that Liverpool currently sit just two points ahead of us, having played one more game. They are currently managed by a failed ex-Newcastle manager who trawled the world to bring us Andreas Andersson, Stephane Guivarc'h and George Georgiadis....

The Reds currently occupy a smaller ground than us and are watched by smaller average crowds. Big club, my arse, as a well-known Scouser might say. Perhaps they just have more ambitious owners, who did due diligence...

From £0 to £35m in 91 games represents a fine example of the declared Ashley/Llambias policy of emulating Arsenal in developing young talent, signing unknown overseas players, making them into first team players - and then selling them. It's not much fun up in Level 7 though.

The sums involved here are another reminder that we're quite literally not in the same league as the mega money men like Liverpool - whether we'll physically be in the same league as them by August remains to be seen.

Everything else -Geordie boy, famous number nine, fog on the bloody Tyne, whatever - goes out the window. Football romance is dead, everyone is a liar, contracts should be printed on toilet paper.

None of that - or this deal - should come as a surprise to anyone. All depressingly predictable.


Great piece of writing and have read my mind completely.