‘We were all stunned’… Alan Pardew now admits he was shocked by transfer bid Liverpool once made

Add as preferred source on Google

Liverpool’s current recruitment strategy is once of the very best in all of Europe.

The Reds’ patient approach might not always be to every fans liking, but Liverpool rarely get it wrong in the transfer market these days. Go back to 2011 though, and that was not the case. Back then, the Reds made one of their most high-profile expensive mistakes: Andy Carroll.

Coming off the back of an excellent half-season with Newcastle United, Liverpool spent £35m on a 22-year-old Carroll. It was a remarkable signing at the time, but flush with cash from the sale of Fernando Torres, the Reds went big on Andy C. And speaking to TalkSPORT this week, even Newcastle’s then manager, Alan Pardew, has admitted to being ‘stunned’ by the size of the offer.

“Andy Carroll was the worst one because I think the last day [of the transfer window] was a Monday,” Pardew explains. “I had just flown home to see my family and was just getting on the flight and Derek Llambias rings me to say that the bid is getting really close to £30 million. When you get off the other end we might be doing this deal.

“So being the manager and sensible person I am, when I was on the plane I had a gin and tonic and I decided that wasn’t enough. I didn’t want to sell him! So I get back on the phone to Derek and said if you get £35 million maybe there is a discussion, thinking there was no way Kenny Dalglish of all people is going to spend that on Andy Carroll.

“So I went to training, it was all enjoyable, and there was the bid. £35 million. We were all stunned. It was the British transfer record at the time and it was a massive problem for us, it left us really short.”

Pardew stunned by Liverpool offer

Pardew wasn’t the only person shocked by just how much Liverpool were willing to pay for Carroll. When you factor in that Luis Suarez also arrived for around £23m on the same day, it seemed like an unnecessary signing.

Carroll was obviously a good prospect, but he’d also played just 42 Premier League games at the time.

As he’d go on to prove at Liverpool, the ponytailed No.9 was never a player worthy of breaking the British transfer record for.

He had his moments for the Reds, it should be said. He almost turned the 2012 FA Cup final completely around with a barnstorming goal-scoring performance. Had it not been for a quite amazing Petr Cech save, Carroll would have scored two goals in that final.

The former England international also grabbed a late winner against Everton in the semi-final. 11 goals in 58 appearances wasn’t the best record, but it wasn’t all bad.

In the years since, Carroll has admitted that he simply was not ready for a move to a club like Liverpool. Very much a home boy, he never really wanted to leave Newcastle.

But with a ‘stunning’ offer on the table, his boyhood club couldn’t refuse. How different his career might have been if they had.

Now 34, Carroll is playing in the French second division with Amiens. He hasn’t played in a top division since 2021. From the high of a big move to Liverpool, his career has had more lows in the years since.