Where now for football in the North-East following the sales of Carroll and Bent?

By Brian McNally

Published 11:26 12/02/11

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Now the dust has settled on the dramatic departures of Darren Bent and Andy Carroll from the North-East it is the right time to take stock on what their loss means to the region's football prospects.

Perhaps I am becoming cynical in my old age but I have a feeling that Tyne and Wear is perhaps the only part of the country where two England centre forward could be sold for almost £60million without any replacement strikers being brought in.

Newcastle United and Sunderland may have two massive cheques sitting in the bank but the long-term effect is that the attacking strength of both clubs has been severely depleted.

The extraordinary 4-4 draw with Arsenal - one of the greatest comebacks in Premier League history - may have taken the focus away from Newcastle's scarcity of strikers just as the Carroll injury stops “what-might-have-been” talk at least for the time being.

But there is absolutely no doubt that Newcastle and their Wearside neighbours have been undermined by the January sales.

And as usual in this success-starved part of the world the fans - who turn out in such fabulous numbers - have been treated with contempt.

The shock, big-money departures of crowd favourites Bent and Carroll delivered yet another savage kick in the teeth to the region's long-suffering supporters.

As a long-time chronicler of the area known as The Hotbed of Soccer there is little room left for surprise in the McNally locker. But the manner of the Bent and Carroll exits left me both angry and amazed.

In this crazy, money-mad world of obscene transfer fees and outrageous wages, loyalty is a commodity that simply does not exist.

As one football cynic quipped at the time of Bent's departure to Aston Villa, "if you want loyalty buy yourself a dog."

But it is not the fact that Bent and Carroll took the money and ran that grates most on me. It is the lack of honesty that preceded their departures that hurts most- public declarations of loyalty from both players to their clubs and their fans.

A month before he quit the Stadium of Light. North East Footballer of the Year Bent was still insisting how much he loved life on Wearside and announced he wanted to sign a new contract.

Within a month he was submitting a transfer request just hours after the drawn Tyne-Wear derby and the quick-fire £18million deal - which can rise to £24million with add-ons - was completed within 48 hours.

Black Cats boss Steve Bruce was not slow to question the unusual and exceptional rapidity of the transfer, hinting that the Bent camp had prepared for a move many days before Sunderland were aware of it.

And the candid Geordie also pointedly questioned whether Bent's sub-standard shows in a Sunderland shirt leading up to his exit had anything to do with the prospect of a transfer.

The outcome was that Sunderland banked a large sum of money and their fans were left branding their former hero a money-grabbing traitor.

But surely Sunderland could have played hard ball with Bent and insisted that as a contracted player he at least stayed until the end of the season? Strange that minnows Blackpool were able to resist Charlie Adam's bid to leave.

And Sunderland fans will be bitterly disappointed that Bruce failed to bring in a replacement striker with a fortnight to work with even though he recruited two quality midfielders.

But the difference between Sunderland and Newcastle is that Bruce's side probably only need one more win to be absolutely certain of survival.

Newcastle fans revelled in Sunderland's misfortune at Bent's departure only to be hit by a bombshell of their own.

Geordie optimism on Carroll had been bolstered by the fact that the lanky number nine had signed a five-year contract and insisted that he wanted to stay at Newcastle "forever."

When I interviewed him at a Newcastle hotel in November he was absolutely adamant about his desire to remain on Tyneside.

Carroll seemed genuine as he poured his heart out about his love for his boyhood idols. But with every word my mind kept flashing back to similar sentiments I had once heard from fellow Geordies Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne many years ago.

Shortly after this meeting with Carroll, Chris Hughton was disgracefully sacked. But in new boss Alan Pardew's first interview he revealed that owner Mike Ashley had personally assured him that the Magpies prize asset would not be sold.

Then the Toon top brass briefed journalists by reinforcing that "Andy Carroll would not be sold at any price."

Pardew has since claimed his stance was simply a plot to frighten off the sharks circling Carroll before his arrival as Hughton's successor.

And 48 hours before Carroll put pen to Liverpool's paper I was given the same mantra by the club's head of media.

Now it it is the turn of the Newcastle fans to feel betrayed as recriminations about Carroll's departure reverberate around Tyneside.

From declarations that James Milner wouldn't be sold, to the admitted lies surrounding Kevin Keegan's departure and the phoney claim that as a manager Alan Shearer was the best thing since sliced bread the Tyneside public have been led up the garden path.

So perhaps given the history we should all have been better prepared for Newcastle cashing in on Carroll. What is certain is that Ashley's regime has surrendered any credibility it may have salvaged over the last year.

And the swathe of contracts they have dished out in recent months have been rendered meaningless by a sale that appears to signal the club's Premier League status is now secondary to making money.

A £35million cheque may beef up the balance sheet for prospective buyers but it won't guarantee the goals

Newcastle should be safe enough this season but still need points to secure survival. But Sunderland could well have chucked away their chance of European football by not insisting that Bent stayed at least until the summer.

This cruel double blow represents another black chapter in the history of North-East football and, sadly, experience tells me it will not be the last.

But I'm not sure how much longer the region's football public will continue to accept sell-outs that ensure the North-East remains very much second best in the quest for top honours.

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