Carroll’s kids think he’ll join Man City or Barca as he reveals Anfield regrets

Liverpool’s deadline day signings in January 2011 could not have had more different careers as one striker ended up winning the Champions League and the other washed up as a free agent.

That is the tale of former Reds Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, the latter of whom gave a candid interview to The Athletic about his time at Anfield and how he ‘didn’t appreciate’ what he had.

Carroll joined Liverpool for a then club record fee of £35million and had high hopes following an impressive first half of the season at his boyhood club Newcastle United.

Sadly for him, he was never able to ignite his career at Anfield and having to live up to the pressure as a replacement for former Kop idol Fernando Torres was perhaps his downfall, although Suarez had no trouble.

Carroll said: “The way I’d played at Newcastle — that was how I wanted to play. But Liverpool was completely different.

“I should have embraced their ideas, what they wanted. Thinking back, I really didn’t appreciate what I had and what I could have achieved.”

A solitary League Cup in 2012 was the highlight of short lived career at Anfield.

After costing the club £35m he was sent out on loan to West Ham for the following season before being sold in 2013 for less than half than what the Reds paid for him.

He did re-join his boyhood club in 2019 and believed he would stay there for the rest of career.

Again however, he is looking for another club.

“I thought I was going to be finishing at Newcastle” he said.

“I thought that was going to be me for the next four or five years.

“The kids still think I’m going to sign for Manchester City or Barcelona.”

Ironically, it was the latter where his ex-teammate Suarez spent the best years of his career after he left Liverpool in 2014 to move to Catalonia.

The Uruguayan forward was outstanding at Anfield and unlike Carroll, delivered so much in his time at the club.

The 2013/14 season may arguably be the best season any Premier League player had as he nearly took Liverpool to the title on his own thanks to his remarkable record of 31 goals and 17 assists in 33 games.

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