Liverpool remain hopeful of finding a big-money buyer for their out-of-favour front man at the end of the season.
Reds head coach Brendan Rodgers says that England international Andy Carroll will not be allowed to leave Anfield on the cheap this summer.
SOURCE: The Daily Mail
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has been speaking just prior to the Reds’ Premier League encounter with West Ham United at Anfield on Sunday about what the future career prospects are for the Hammers’ on-loan centre-forward Andy Carroll.
The giant England international was bought by previous head coach Kenny Dalglish from Newcastle United in January 2011 for an eye-watering British-record transfer fee of £35 million.
However, in the intervening period it is safe to say that the move has not really worked out for either party.
The 24-year-old found the back of the net on just the six occasions in 44 matches while on Merseyside; a run of form that convinced Rodgers to allow the player to move to a Premier League rival when he replaced Dalglish at the helm last summer.
Carroll has endured a better time of it since joining West Ham United on a season-long loan at the beginning of this campaign, although a succession of niggling in juries have reduced his impact slightly.
The 6’5″ striker has only featured in 17 games for Sam Allardyce’s struggling outfit, scoring just the five goals in the process.
However, the pony-tailed front man did return from his latest spell on the side-lines by netting two scintillating strikes in the Hammers’ 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion at Upton Park in the top flight last weekend and those two pieces of contrasting skill have resulted in speculation once again as to just where the player may end up at next season.
Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, are determined to recoup as much of the club-record £35m that they rather unwisely splashed out on the front man, with footballer database transfermarkt’s market value for the player of £9.7m being perhaps a little on the low side. Liverpool will certainly hope to secure a sum rather larger than that, as that is not even a third of what they paid two years ago.
If that is the case, then West Ham are unlikely to be able to sign Carroll on a long-term deal, possibly opening the door for former club Newcastle to re-sign Carroll.
A possible swap deal involving Hatem Ben Arfa appears to be the consensus amongst the newspapers, and perhaps that will be the compromise reached.
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