How Andy Carroll cost Liverpool £3.75m per Premier League goal
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 9 Feb 2022 15:36 GMT
- 3 min read
Newcastle striker Andy Carroll was one of the most in-form centre-forwards in the country in the first half of the 2010/11 Premier League campaign.
Carroll was part of the Newcastle academy before becoming the youngest player ever to feature for the club in Europe, when he replaced Nolberto Solano in a UEFA Cup fixture against Palermo.
Never a supremely frequent goalscorer, he was indeed in a superb run of form in the first half of the 2010/11 season, banging in 11 goals in 19 games following Newcastle's promotion from the Championship.
Liverpool, meanwhile, were struggling under Kenny Dalglish, and identified Carroll, along with future superstar Luis Suarez, as a replacement for Fernando Torres, who in January of 2011 completed a British record transfer to Chelsea.
TRENDING
It seems remarkable to think in 2022 due to their career trajectories, but Carroll actually cost more than Suarez, with Newcastle demanding £35 million for their young forward.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Carroll's time at Liverpool was a disaster.
A talented target man like the England striker certainly has his place in the game, but he simply didn't fit in with how Liverpool ultimately wanted to play, while the injury problems that hugely impacted his career would start to pile up.
He would eventually leave on loan and then permanently to West Ham at a £23m loss as the Hammers purchased him for £12m.
What was Carroll's overall cost to Liverpool?
Carroll cost Liverpool £35m in a transfer fee, while he was reportedly on around £80,000 per week at Anfield.
He was there for 18 months, so a conservative estimate is that he cost the club around £41m during his time there.
That is a conservative estimate as he would have been on a number of bonus incentives and a signing-on fee.
Using the £41m amount, we can determine that Carroll cost Liverpool £3.72m per goal scored.
For appearances in all competitions, he earned:
£706k per game played for Liverpool (58 appearances)
£3.72m per goal scored (11 goals in 58 appearances)
£6.8m per assist (Four assists in 58 appearances)
