Andy Carroll, from being the most expensive Englishman to the second division

In the heads of the Liverpool managers it was incredible: they had signed Luis Suárez and Andy Carroll in the same transfer market to supply the sale of Fernando Torres. While the first was a sporting and economic success (they paid 25 million euros to Ajax), the second He entered the list of worst signings in the history of the Premier League directly. What the net set paid for the then Newcastle striker was a record figure of 40 million euros, the most expensive to date with English nationality, a money that nevertheless never knew how to translate into performance. Carroll had scored 11 goals in the first round for the Magpies, in addition to another 17 the previous season, but He never knew how to transfer that forward nose to the Liverpool shirt.

Carroll only spent a full season with the Anfield club in which he scored four Premier League goals, a clearly insufficient return for a team trying to regain pride with Kenny Dalglish on the bench. The English striker, absolute international between 2010 and 2012, ended up losing his position in the squad until West Ham rescued him for theirs, first as assigned and later in a sale of about 20 million euros, also the most expensive signing of the entity at that time. In total, six seasons in the ‘hammers’ in exchange for 34 official goals. Nevertheless, the injuries had already started to weigh down a career that he never took the speed he promised in his youth.

When his contract ran out at West Ham, Newcastle reappeared to give him one last chance at the elite. Carroll has spent the last two seasons as a footballer for the team that launched him to fame, but he has barely been able to leave details (one goal in 43 games). In fact, he has hardly been able to participate: six minutes in May, one in April and four more in March. In summer he was left without equipment. And that’s how it has been until this week Reading announced that it had signed him for two months., in a short-term contract, a very common strategy in England for footballers who cannot keep fit and who serve to cover shortcomings in the squad, as a test to see if they work.

Veljko Paunovic, club coach, He spoke of his new striker like this: “It’s the right move for the player and the club. Andy is looking for a new challenge in his career and we need a player with his quality and extensive experience. “Reading occupies the 16th position of the table in the Championship and has only achieved one victory in the last five games. In addition, they have just taken six points for breaking the economic regulations of the division. This is the new reality of the forward who almost a decade ago was the most expensive English footballer and that now his return to the top division of the country will be very expensive.