Liverpool accept bid for Andy Carroll but striker still undecided

Liverpool have accepted a €17.6m offer from West Ham United for Andy Carroll, a €23.5m loss on their record signing in 28 months, but face a struggle to convince the striker to sever his Anfield ties for Upton Park.

Carroll enjoyed an impressive yet injury-hit season on loan with Sam Allardyce’s team, who have moved quickly to secure the 24-year-old on a long-term basis following their final Premier League game.

West Ham are prepared to pay a club-record transfer fee to sign the striker around whom Allardyce intends to build his team, while Liverpool want to sell Carroll to generate extra transfer funds.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, who admits he is braced for bids for Luis Suarez this summer, has lined up Kolo Toure on a free transfer from Manchester City and has bid €14m for Schalke central defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos.

Liverpool wanted a €20m fee written into Carroll's loan deal when he reluctantly moved to east London last August. That was dropped to enable the move to proceed ahead of the transfer deadline, with West Ham paying a €2.3m loan arrangement fee and the striker's €94,000-a-week wages. The agreed deal is a huge reduction on the €41m Newcastle United received from Liverpool in January 2011 but underlines the Anfield club's determination to offload Carroll and reinvest quickly.

Not sold on transfer
Carroll, however, is not sold on the idea of a transfer to West Ham, despite tweeting after the final game against Reading on Sunday he had "enjoyed every minute" of his time at the club.

Rodgers and Allardyce have to persuade the striker West Ham is in his best interests again, as they did last summer, but Carroll has not indicated he wants to leave Liverpool.

The England international, who was recalled by Roy Hodgson for the forthcoming friendlies against the Republic of Ireland and Brazil but will miss out with a heel problem, has taken encouragement from how Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing revived their Anfield careers having been dismissed as expensive mistakes.

Carroll believes he can follow suit and would also consider a return to Newcastle United, but West Ham, who are expected to part company with Carlton Cole, are the only club to submit an offer so far.

Rodgers is ready to sell Carroll despite the uncertainty surrounding Suarez’s future at Anfield in the wake of his 10-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic last month, when a despairing Suarez was considering quitting English football.

Rodgers has been encouraged by the player’s demeanour since his return from a short holiday but accepts offers for Liverpool’s leading goalscorer are inevitable.

Rodgers believes Suarez’s disillusionment with English football has lessened in the four weeks since his ban. “There was that initial period of shock and anger but a wee bit of reality has set in now,” he said. “He knows he did wrong. Apart from those first few days when I gave him a period away, he’s come back and he’s got on with it.”

The Liverpool manager also hopes the club's firm support for Suarez during another controversy will be repaid by the striker this summer.
Guardian Service