Pound for pound

[Ne Moe Imya]

It's Carroll, and it isn't close. In 20 years people will still be talking about that transfer as one of the worst in football history.

 

Second place is actually quite close for me between Downing and Aquilani. I think Alberto takes it, but I'm factoring in my hope that some desperate club with deep pockets (QPR?) will give us 8 or 10 million for Downing in January, which would go a long way towards ameliorating the disaster he's been.

 

On a side note, I find it extremely depressing that for a club with our extensive history, at least 5 out of our 10 worst signings ever have come in the last 5 years.

[Jose Jones]

It's Carroll, and it isn't close. In 20 years people will still be talking about that transfer as one of the worst in football history.

 

Second place is actually quite close for me between Downing and Aquilani. I think Alberto takes it, but I'm factoring in my hope that some desperate club with deep pockets (QPR?) will give us 8 or 10 million for Downing in January, which would go a long way towards ameliorating the disaster he's been.

 

On a side note, I find it extremely depressing that for a club with our extensive history, at least 5 out of our 10 worst signings ever have come in the last 5 years.

 

A consequence of being poorly run but mainly due to the explosion in money in the game.

For example Paul Stewart, we paid 2.3 million for and the average player wage then was about 70 grand per year! Now Stewart Downing we pay 20 million for and his weekly wage is around 70 grand. Always going to look like a worse waste of money.

[cmuller]

I'd say Carroll at the moment but if we get around the £19m mark back from West Ham at the end of the year then in overall value for money spent terms Downing, Cole and Aquilani, Milan Jovanovic (or however his name is spelled) have provided less.

 

Actually I could add Clough, Babb, Stewart and about ten more to that list! Jimmy Carter! Didn't we pay about £2m for him when the UK transfer record was about £3m?

[cmuller]

Julian Dicks. Provoking some bad memories

[Melchett]

Charles Itandje.

[JohnnyH]

Well that's not true is it, Carroll is on £80k a week while Aqualani is on over £100k a week

 

No he wasn’t. He was on £60k a week. Two journalists said it was on a £100k a week and then corrected themselves. Said journalists got this figure because someone else was adding in what we paid for him to his wages. It’d be akin to saying Carroll was on £200k a week. The simple fact no one was bleating on about him being on £100k a week until we sold him for £7m (yes, yes, yes, of course we gave him all the £7m… and a new house and 2 dogs) should be enough to confirm that he was never on such a salary.

 

How anyone can not chose Carroll is genuinely baffles me. He did indeed score in a semi final (just like Aquilani) and scored in a losing final???? (I look forward to Kuyts plaudits for scoring in 2007) but to make that some kind of good thing as he moped around with his 1 in 6 goal scoring rate as our record transfer out and out striker is wrong. He’s the 9th most expensive footballer in the history of the game and yet we’d have been much better off with Crouch. Carroll was given every chance by the fans as he sulked around for 12 months. This was because of who had signed him. If either of Benitez or Hodgson had signed him then I 100% guarantee you it would be close to 99% votes for Carroll in this pol. We signed Carroll injured and no one seemed to mind. Cast your mind back a few years when we signed Aquilani injured and people never stopped complaining. Basically, if both are judged fairly on what they actually did for what they cost, then there will only ever be one winner. Carroll and Aquilani were both terrible signings, but Carroll is not just our worst signing, he is most probably the worst pound for pound signing in the history of the game.

[The Guest]

The Carroll one is the one that catches the eye but at the end of the day he was a young player who still will probably trun out to be quite good. We overpaid for him massively but we were paying for potential.

 

Stewart fucking Downing on the other hand is the worst signing in the history of football never mind Liverpool. Absolutely average winger who could barely hack it at smaller clubs. He had been round for a decade and everybody in England knew exactly how fucking average he was yet we go and spend £20m on him. He then goes on to surprise everyone in proving he's not actually average he's just plain shite.

[Trucker Paddy]

 

No he wasn’t. He was on £60k a week. Two journalists said it was on a £100k a week and then corrected themselves. Said journalists got this figure because someone else was adding in what we paid for him to his wages. It’d be akin to saying Carroll was on £200k a week. The simple fact no one was bleating on about him being on £100k a week until we sold him for £7m (yes' date=' yes, yes, of course we gave him all the £7m… and a new house and 2 dogs) should be enough to confirm that he was never on such a salary.

 

How anyone can not chose Carroll is genuinely baffles me. He did indeed score in a semi final (just like Aquilani) and scored in a losing final???? (I look forward to Kuyts plaudits for scoring in 2007) but to make that some kind of good thing as he moped around with his 1 in 6 goal scoring rate as our record transfer out and out striker is wrong. He’s the 9th most expensive footballer in the history of the game and yet we’d have been much better off with Crouch. Carroll was given every chance by the fans as he sulked around for 12 months. This was because of who had signed him. If either of Benitez or Hodgson had signed him then I 100% guarantee you it would be close to 99% votes for Carroll in this pol. We signed Carroll injured and no one seemed to mind. Cast your mind back a few years when we signed Aquilani injured and people never stopped complaining. Basically, if both are judged fairly on what they actually did for what they cost, then there will only ever be one winner. Carroll and Aquilani were both terrible signings, but Carroll is not just our worst signing, he is most probably the worst pound for pound signing in the history of the game.[/quote']

 

Johnny get a fuckin grip I couldn't give a shit who signed who when making an opinion. And there's no way in hell we got £7m for Aqualani, 5 managers in 3 seasons didn't want, 5 can they all be wrong. I'll say it to my death that transfer stunk to high heaven and a lot of palms were greased

[Magic Sponge]

Nunez.

 

Lawyers don't come cheap.

[spider-neil]

Got to be Carroll. Imho not a poor player and in the right system I think he would be very effective but the simple truth is we spent £35m (35 MILLION POUNDS!!!) on a player who didn't fit into our system and then compounded that problem with the twenty million pound downing. Incredible, absolutely incredible.

[Unrighteous]

For people saying "Carroll"

 

We'll get, at least, 15m for Andy Carroll.

 

We had to pay Aquilani to leave.

[JohnnyH]

Johnny get a fuckin grip I couldn't give a shit who signed who when making an opinion. And there's no way in hell we got £7m for Aqualani, 5 managers in 3 seasons didn't want, 5 can they all be wrong. I'll say it to my death that transfer stunk to high heaven and a lot of palms were greased

 

When saying people gave more time to Carroll because of who signed him, I was talking in general. Not saying you.

 

You keep spinning this “5 managers didn’t want him” line, but that’s bolox. For starters, Juve had a funny way of showing it by playing him in all but 5 league games the season he was there and then trying to sign him from us in lengthy negotiations. However, as we wouldn’t move from the £14m fee we wanted, Juve ended talks. Milan also played him in 23 league games in a season when he suffered injury again; and they also tried to sign him full time. I suppose further proof of no one wanting him was the 9 International caps he got for Italy while at Juve and Milan……

 

You can say it to your death all you want that palms were greased, but its utter horseshite and comes from ignorance of the quality of the player prior to him signing for us. He was excellent in his Roma days. Undoubted quality. As I said many times before, he was one of the very few foreign players that I knew a lot about having watched him many times when I was working in Italy after Man Utd showed interest in signing him and I wanted to see what he was about. I was very excited when we got him as he had great talent. However, between injury, not been played in a more attacking role where he was at his best, not been given a proper chance that the likes of Carroll, Lucas, etc were given (how we could have done with him last year), and admittedly looking like being too lightweight, it went pear shaped and he is rightly called an expensive failure. But worse then Carroll? Not a chance.

 

As an aside, if you think palms were greased for the Aquilani signing, then what the fuck went on for the Carroll and Downing signings? Why aren’t they subject to the scurrilous accusations of bungs and backhanders that have blighted this club as they are so happily thrown about by this fan base ? Actually, I think I've figured it out.....

[Guest davelfc]

We desperately need a striker, we had £35m cash in our hands and we spent it on a striker that is currently on loan, while we cannot in most circumstances, buy a goal.

 

Same last season, goals cost us. I don't think any of the other names cost us so much when you compare. Aquilani, well it's not like we do not have midfielders that are much better, because we have.

 

We don't have a striker that is better than Carroll and that £35m was actual cash, we could have made such a difference, probably purchased three decent strikers for that, probably all better than Carroll.

 

Carroll will end up being the biggest mistake that this club has made after moores stuffed his pockets with the extra few million from the cancers.

[JohnnyH]

For people saying "Carroll"

 

We'll get, at least, 15m for Andy Carroll.

 

Do you think? Unless he has a great season for West Ham then I can just see him coming back here. I think he'll end up back at Newcastle for £7-8m.

 

We had to pay Aquilani to leave.

 

No we didn't. But the good old twitter and forum rumour mill which gave us the £100k a week myth have this myth also well sewn up.

[captainharris]

I don't think anyone can really look past Carroll can they? A disaster of a signing... £35 million. Yep. £35million.

 

Paying for potential? Maybe you pay a little over the odds for potential, but the amount we paid for him is what you pay for world class proven talent. A mistake on so many levels. And £for£ has to be the worst in the clubs history.

 

If he comes good, bangs in 20 for West Ham this season and we either bring him back firing or sell him for a decent wedge then maybe it won't be so bad, but currently we've been well and truly shafted (or should I say we shafted ourselves).

[Trucker Paddy]

Johnny your arguments are greatly flawed.

 

Why did juve or Milan not keep him.

Why would Fiorentina pay £7m if Milan wouldn't pay £5m

And these Italian caps, why was he not brought to the euros?

I see Macia is at Fiorentina now, I've long believed Rafa never seen Aqualani play in the flesh, how could he given he barely kicked a ball for 2 years before, also Rafa was well known for wanting players with strong mentality and then publicly said Aqualani had mental issues, we all know what happened with Carroll Newcastle had us by the balls, regarding downing if you want to imply Kenny dalglish was up to no good it's wrong but I don't honestly think you believe that, but I will always say Macia was a corrupt bastard

[JohnnyH]

Johnny your arguments are greatly flawed.

 

Why did juve or Milan not keep him.

 

As I said above. They wanted to. Juve wouldn't pay the £14m that had apparently been "agreed" as part of the loan deal (much like the rumoured £17m agreed for Carroll with West Ham that I think has just as much of a chance of happening) and we wouldn't shift from that agreement. We are rumoured to have wanted €10m from Milan, but they refused also and tried to agree a much lower price (less then half if Italian papers are to be believed). Nonetheless, the fact both clubs didn't just send him back to us, but very clearly and publicaly spoke about trying to do a deal just confirms they wanted him. I think both would have paid around €3-5m as they knew we wanted rid.

 

Why would Fiorentina pay £7m if Milan wouldn't pay £5m

 

Sorry, €7m, not £. So about £5.5m

 

And these Italian caps, why was he not brought to the euros?

 

You'll have to ask the Italian manager that one. He still did well enough at Milan and Juve to get 9 caps. I am using this though to point out he clearly wasn't rubbish for them. I'm not saying he was some midfield maestro, but he clearly did well enough to get multiple call ups.

 

I see Macia is at Fiorentina now, I've long believed Rafa never seen Aqualani play in the flesh, how could he given he barely kicked a ball for 2 years before, also Rafa was well known for wanting players with strong mentality and then publicly said Aqualani had mental issues, we all know what happened with Carroll Newcastle had us by the balls, regarding downing if you want to imply Kenny dalglish was up to no good it's wrong but I don't honestly think you believe that, but I will always say Macia was a corrupt bastard

 

I'm not in any way shape or form implying that Dalglish was up to no good. I don't consider that to be the case for one second. What I am saying is that it is far to easy for fans to claim back handers by certain individuals. Aquilani was a poor buy very obviously. But why can we say that it must have been done for bungs, and not say that about the Carroll or Downing or Keane deal? Basically, I am saying I am sick of all this rubbing fingers together, bung innuendo stuff that goes on around our club. We moan about what other fans say about us, when we say the worst things possible.

 

Maybe Macia just rates Aquilani and thought that if for €7m euro he could get an Italian International midfielder who had proven in the past to be excellent in that league, that it was a risk worth taking?

 

 

 

Anyway, it's still Carroll............

[Randy Marsh]

Aquilani for me. Carroll scored a modest number of goals, one being a winner against the blueshite at Wembley. He also very nearly single handedly clawed us back to level terms in the FA Cup Final. Aquilani arrived injured, made a handful of appearances, disappeared on loan for two years and eventually left for about one tenth of what we paid for him. If Carroll leaves we will atleast return 50% of his transfer fee. Have no problem with Carroll either and believe he will go on to be a fantastic player. We are probably just the wrong club for him at this time. So Aquilani for me.

[Whelan]

Aquilani has to be the worst simply because we got absolutely nothing from him! No good performance, no signs of progression just a Boss Eyed Crock of Shit who couldn't wait to go home and nuzzle his birds impressive bangers.

 

The one that has pissed me off the most is Charlie Adam (although I didn't boo, as I have nothing against him), I don't see how we could have been after him in January 10', then watched Blackpool implode with him in the middle and still go back in for him!

 

He should never have been bought full stop.

[boomer39]

tony hateley

[DanDanShaw]

Carroll without a doubt, none of the others even come close.

 

I don't blame Aquilani, he's a very good player and wasn't ever really given a chance.

[Red Hot]

Going as far back as Toney Hately I always thought Shanks made a massive error for £100,000. But £35M for Carrol has to be the most expensive cock up of LFCs transfer blunders. Hately may have had two left feet, but boy could he head a ball. Andy sorry son, didnt rate you when we bought him and sadly was soon prooved right.

 

The problem has been too many transfer duds since Souness took over from Kenny. Evans made blunders. Ged far too many at crytical times. Rafa did get a lot right but also made a good few. Roy well, there you go. Kenny not sure he should take the blame for Carrol, but defo for Downing.

[Unrighteous]

No we didn't. But the good old twitter and forum rumour mill which gave us the £100k a week myth have this myth also well sewn up.

 

It's not a myth, thats why,

[Unrighteous]

Carroll without a doubt, none of the others even come close.

 

I don't blame Aquilani, he's a very good player and wasn't ever really given a chance.

 

Bullshit and bullshit.

[xerxes]

No we didn't. But the good old twitter and forum rumour mill which gave us the £100k a week myth have this myth also well sewn up.

£100k a week is a myth- it was £125k, confirmed by the club in a press briefing.