West Ham United are prepared to pay just £10million for Andy Carroll.
The England international cost a whopping £35million when Liverpool signed him in January 2011, but he has failed to live up to expectations on Merseyside. After a disappointing 18 months, the striker was loaned to West Ham in August for the current campaign.
Carroll has struggled with injury at times this term, but when available, he has become a big asset for Sam Allardyce’s side. The 24-year-old has now appeared in 24 Premier League matches for the Londoners, and his return of six goals has helped steer them to safety.
Brendan Rodgers is prepared to let the former Newcastle United man leave on a permanent basis in the summer, and the Hammers are understood to have an agreement in place which would allow them to take him for £17million. However, as much as they would love to hold onto Carroll, this is a price which is beyond them as Allardyce revealed last week.
“The hardest thing is the overall package and making sure it is sustainable,” the Upton Park manager said on Monday. “I point to financial restrictions being implemented next season that will blow the whole deal in one go. Someone will have a bigger budget than us probably but this is what is going to happen. In one fell swoop the financial restrictions mean we won’t be able to sign Andy Carroll from Liverpool because it is too expensive, even if we wanted him, which we do.”
It would appear as though West Ham haven’t completely given up hope of signing Carroll, as the Sun claims they are set to make Liverpool an offer of £10million for his signature. But this would represent a huge loss on the record fee the Reds paid for the striker, so they would likely reject this bid in the hope of receiving more interest from the likes of Newcastle, who were keen last year.
