RedAnt wrote:Thommo's perm wrote:RedAnt wrote:Andy Carroll signed a five year contract when he was 22. He's now 23 and one year into that contract. In that year he's been injured and after his injury he's looked unfit too. But let's put this in perspective because it really does seem like there's a witch-hunt out for him.
Carroll never wanted a £35m price tag. He's probably as bewildered about it as we are. He has to live with that price tag hanging around his neck. But...he's 23. Remember that. We knew who he was when we signed him. And we had to sign someone. Torres left us in the lurch on the last day. We wanted a new striker. The only one available was Andy Carroll. Newcastle didn't want to sell him. They knew we were getting a huge fee for Torres, adding to that his age, his nationality, his form, and the fact he'd recently made his England debut, and the fee was £35m. Done. Dusted. Deal with it.
When we signed him, we knew what he was about. He was the new Heskey really, a player who had his good and bad times.
Carroll looks depressed to me. He falls over. His touch lets him down again and again. He never used to do this at Newcastle. Why us? But deliver a ball into his area and he will win it. He does it time and time again. The service to him has been atrocious. When we talk of form and consitency, this also includes constistancy from service. I've played football, and i'm sure many here have. When service is poor, or your heads down in the dumps, or you have a hang-over, or anything...suddenly everything becomes so much more difficult. The simple things aren't so simple anymore. Why do you think so many strikers have goal droughts? Then they score, confidence is up and the goals start flowing. That's football.
Let's not count on how many times his control has let him down, or he's fallen over. Look at the bigger picture. And if you really, really, really want to, then count how many times crosses fail to reach him, or fail to beat the first man. Count how many times Carroll's in the box, fighting six defenders all alone, without a team-mate in sight. Count how many times our wingers get to the byline. Count how many times the referee's blown his whistle against him whenever the big lad uses his strength.
Yes Carroll has his problems, but many of these problems are rooted elsewhere.
The lad might need as kick up the butt, but he also needs support, not hatred, and not the whole weight of the teams failings being added to the weight of his price tag.
He is afterall just a kid and has a heck of a lot to learn. £35m and being placed into the first team right away dosen't make him the finished article.
£35 million = experienced, knowledgable, skilled, passionate, powerful, talented, top of the range, practically finished article of a player.
Thats what people want to see for that kind of money. Thats why he has been under pressure since day one. Thats why he cant cope with the spotlight or the expectations. Thats why were not seeing the best of Carroll. If he had cost 5 or 10 million he would have been terrorising the PL.
I'm afraid you're totally right. 110 pages all talking about Carroll. A lot of it is whining and moaning and blaming. And that's my point...half of these posts aren't about Carroll, they're about a £35m price tag.
People say theyre not obsessed with his price tag but they are.
We all get ripped off every Fu*king day of our lives with petrol, VAT, gas and leccy, bank charges, council tax, income tax, national insurance, road tax etc- on and on the list goes, but Carroll's cost is more frustrating to some than all that sh'it.
I think the main reason those who are obsessed go on about it is that they feel KK has made a cu'nt of us by paying so much for what looks on the face of it a dud. They are embarrassed that the media and other clubs have made it into a national talking point where every knob has an opinion on how we were ripped off by newcastle. We are getting the pi'ss taken out of us and it hurts them.
My sister in law has just walked in and said "how sh'it is that Carroll?" and shes a bitter! Fu'ck me Id be more worried about relegation than how Carroll was doing if I was her, haha
The £25, or £35 million price tag is just boring now. We all know about it, its no surprise, get over it. If he doesnt buck his ideas up he will be gone in the summer. No probs
