Anything can happen on transfer deadline day. There are still figures working at Newcastle United who know that better than most after what happened in the final hours of the mid-season window 15 years ago. It never saw the light of day after Carroll boarded a helicopter bound for Merseyside to complete a British record £35m move to Liverpool.
Anything can happen on transfer deadline day. There are still figures working at Newcastle United who know that better than most after what happened in the final hours of the mid-season window 15 years ago.
Andy Carroll had been so sure he was staying at his boyhood club that the towering striker even gave an interview to the club website saying as much on 31 January 2011.
It never saw the light of day after Carroll boarded a helicopter bound for Merseyside to complete a British record £35m move to Liverpool.
Yet no-one knew at the time that Carroll privately hoped he failed his medical.
"It's been a tough time for me leaving my home town," he tellingly said at his unveiling just a few days later.
Newcastle had previously insisted that Carroll was not for sale and the number nine reported to the club's training ground as normal on deadline day.
Carroll was stepping up his recovery from a thigh injury at the time, but it was soon apparent that this was not going to be a typical Monday for the then 21-year-old.
It ended up being a day that changed his life.
Liverpool had already signed Luis Suarez from Ajax, but Sir Kenny Dalglish's side were in the market for a replacement for Fernando Torres, who was moving to Chelsea.
Although Newcastle rejected a £30m offer that morning, Liverpool returned with an improved £35m bid.
What happened next has been the subject of claim and counter-claim.
Carroll, who had just bought a house in the North East, felt he had been pushed into a corner because Newcastle could not refuse such a sum.
However, former Newcastle manager Alan Pardew said Carroll asked to leave after the club turned down his demands for a new deal.
The switch to Liverpool did not work out, regardless.
But Carroll always appeared destined to return to St James' Park and, following a spell at West Ham, the Geordie rejoined Newcastle in 2019.
It was rather fitting that the move went through on transfer deadline day.
"Playing for your boyhood team and going away, you realise what you had and missed," Carroll said at the time. "Coming back is something only dreams are made of."
Category: General Sports