"‘He Was Reluctant to Leave’ – Andy Carroll’s Former Newcastle Teammate Shares Insights on Striker’s Struggles with Liverpool Move"

ANDY CARROLL didn’t want to leave Newcastle for a then record move to Liverpool back in January 2011.

, 37, shone bright during his first stint at St James’ Park where he enjoyed five impressive years until the Reds splashed a then club record fee worth about £35million on transfer deadline day.

Kevin Nolan revealed Andy Carroll didn’t want to leave Newcastle for Liverpool Carroll joined Liverpool from Newcastle for a then club record £35m in January 2011

The ex-England international went to visit then team-mate Kevin Nolan before boarding the helicopter that would take him to Anfield where he would undergo a medical and sign a five-and-a-half-year deal.

And Carroll told Nolan, 43, he didn’t want to leave as he wanted to become a St James’ Park legend and wear the esteemed No9 shirt that other greats, like , donned before him.

The Gateshead native was also apprehensive about leaving his hometown where he had built a strong support system that wouldn’t exist in Merseyside.

Nolan told The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast : “He [Carroll] didn’t want to go, he didn’t want to leave.

“They [Newcastle] were just like, ‘No, we’ve got £35m’. I remember sitting with him, he’d come to my house.

“Everyone was looking for him and he kept getting calls. I was talking to him, it was like £29m… £31m, and I’m like, ‘What, for him?’

“We had a really good six months. We’d been good [together] in the , terrorised a few and we were getting a nice little partnership. It was taken away… And we had a good squad.

“With Andy, he was leaving mine to go and get on the helicopter [to ].

“He said ‘I don’t want to go’. He was a Newcastle lad and wanted to be a Newcastle legend, to wear the Newcastle No9 for years.

“Obviously, the scrutiny of the £35m, going to Liverpool, different mentality, not being around your family and friends and everything else… It was difficult for him.

“He moved with his then girlfriend and I think he found that difficult. The transition of being there [Liverpool] and not having the support system that he would have had in Newcastle.”

Carroll couldn’t replicate his Newcastle form at Liverpool as he underwent two hapless years, which included a loan stint at , and amassed a mere total of 11 goals as well as six assists in 58 appearances.

That led the former striker to a permanent move to the Hammers before completing an emotional comeback to the Magpies in 2019.

Upon his return, the ex-Bordeaux star revealed he was so unwilling to move to Anfield that he hoped he would fail his medical.

However, the former forward admits Liverpool gifted him a valuable experience that helped him grow as he needed to leave his hometown and learn.

Carroll told The Mail back in 2019: “I was injured at the time and all I’m thinking is, ‘Please, just fail the medical’.

‘I’m not going’

“The minute I got on that helicopter I wanted to come back. I knew it had to happen. Whatever age, I needed to walk back on that pitch and play for Newcastle again.

“I remember leaving here [Newcastle’s training ground] in Kevin Nolan’s car because loads of people were outside. We went to his house and watched it on TV.

“I was like, ‘I’m not going’. I’d just bought a house and a cat the day before! But then I was told, ‘You’re going’ and that was that.

“I would have rather stayed at the time and all the way to the helicopter I’m thinking, ‘What is happening? What am I doing?’.

“But looking back, and how it shaped me as a player and a person, I would honestly still do it. I probably needed to get out of the city to grow up.”

Carroll then underwent quite the nomadic career that saw him playing for the likes of Reading, West Brom, Amiens, Bordeaux and Dagenham & Redbridge where he has been .