Why over-priced Andy Carroll means fans can no longer accuse City of wrecking transfer market

By Darren Lewis

Published 14:59 02/02/11

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Nobody has said it yet, so I will:

Never again can any Liverpool fan accuse Manchester City of destabilising the transfer market.

Indeed, never again can any fan level at City the charge that they are trying to buy their way to the top.

Especially with so little condemnation of Liverpool’s decision to meet Newcastle’s quite ludicrous £35million asking price for Andy Carroll.

I don’t buy into all the myopic nonsense that, because you are a fan of the club, you don’t criticise them.

The people who would accuse me of that for writing this are probably the same people who were insisting last week that Fernando Torres was going nowhere.

The fact is, there is a massive double standard at work here.

Carroll is a good player with bags of potential.

Nobody is disputing that. I, more than anyone, am excited at the prospect of seeing his raw, brute strength allied to Luis Suarez’s clinical eye for goal.

But £35m, possibly rising to £40m? Not a chance. Not even the £25m Newcastle turned down from Spurs at the weekend.

In fact, is Carroll - with his 11 goals this season – even worth more than his new strike partner, who took his country to the World Cup semi-finals? No way.

I didn’t think the £26m that City paid Aston Villa for James Milner was worth it but at least he’d had a few seasons in the Premier League, reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals with Newcastle and gone to the World Cup with England.

At least £27m Edin Dzeko has shot Wolfsburg to the last eight of the Europa League while £24m Mario Balotelli was in the Iner Milan side that saw off Barcelona to reach the Champions League Final last season.

Listen, go back far enough with City and you can probably find a stinker in there, but you'll have to go some to find anything to compare with breaking the British transfer record for a near-novice with only half a Premier League season under his belt.

At least Torres put some respectability on that record by surpassing it with his £50m price tag later in the day.

But £35m for Carroll? No way. It was a fee that had hardened hacks having a sharp intake of breath when they learned of it.

Liverpool fan DJ Spoony put it best on Twitter when, incredulous at the agreed fee, he queried how Carroll could cost the combined total of the money paid for Arjen Robben, Wesley Sniejder and Rafael van der Vaart by Bayern Munich, Treble-winners Inter Milan and Tottenham respectively.

There was more.

Spoony added: “I’m not having £35million until he scores 35 goals for three seasons.”

And I make him right. David Villa, arguably the finest striker on Planet Football, cost Barcelona £34m.

How did we get to the stage where we are talking about a bloke with one half-decent top-flight season in the same breath as some of the finest players in the world?

I don’t even go along with this shopping-on-Deadline-Day thing. The fact is, Torres has told Liverpool two weeks ago that he wanted out.

They had over a fortnight to get a new striker in. There are all sorts of people they could have gone for who'd have proven better value for money.

I understand this view that, to an extent, the Fenway Sports Group had to be seen – in PR terms – as capable of going toe-to-toe with the big boys.

I understand that Carroll’s age, 21, means he has resale value and all sorts of marketing potential that will rake in the cash.

I understand too that Carroll, with all his considerably ability, is seen as the biggest talent in English football since Wayne Rooney.

But I still can’t have £35m.

And that is why the heat now has to come off Manchester City.

Because I don’t see why there should be one rule for them and another for Liverpool when it comes to spending money in the transfer market.

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