419: Andrew Carroll, Newcastle United, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, Barclays Premier League 2010/11 Collector Binder

A few years ago I took a break from teaching and undertook an MA in Contemporary History and Politics at Birkbeck. This scratched an itch to get back into academia that had developed in the last few weeks of my undergraduate studies when the terrifying reality of the outside world loomed large but sadly I’d spent all of my bursary and student loan on beer, pizza and essentials such as Brondby’s home shirt. During my MA I managed to write essays on the Old Firm rivalry, the role of politics in football and a dissertation on the life and career of Walter Tull and the influence this had on attitudes towards race and ethnicity in football and the military. You might be spotting a trend here.

My sister was filling her husband in on the plans for my dissertation when he replied: “only your brother would go and do a history degree and find a way to write all of his essays about football.” He had a point. In Year 3 my teacher, so sick of me only writing about the beautiful game, set a story task entitled ‘The Magic Horse’. Little did she know that Manny Hawks’ magic horse would fly him to the Stadio delle Alpi to see Juventus v AC Milan. Whilst my sister, thankfully for society, doesn’t share my obsession she’s always kept half an eye on football’s goings-on and, during Euro 2012, informed our family that she’d “go for a beer with Andy Carroll” on the basis “he would be a good laugh”.

Whether or not my sister would have said the same a few years earlier is open to debate. Carroll’s early years at his hometown club, Newcastle United, were littered with dramatic incidents involving alcohol including an arrest for assault, an alleged altercation with team-mate Steven Taylor and dismissal from the England Under 19 squad for breaking curfew. Around the same time his car was set alight whilst parked on club captain Kevin Nolan’s drive. It seems a couple of Newcy Browns with the big striker back then would have been more than “a good laugh”.

On the pitch Carroll was earning a reputation for his powerful performances in Newcastle’s frontline and, having scored seventeen goals to help the Magpies back into the Premier League in the 2009/10 season, he notched up an incredibly impressive eleven goals in nineteen games in the top flight. This exceptional form, along with an exquisite goal in a 3-1 victory over them, grabbed the attention of Liverpool who, having just pocketed a cool £50m from the sale of Fernando Torres, splashed out £35m to bring Carroll to Merseyside in January 2011. At the same time they signed some Uruguayan striker with a penchant for sinking his teeth into a challenge and racially abusing opponents but who cares about him?

Owing to the first in a long line of injuries, Carroll didn’t make his debut for the Reds until March and scored his first goals for the club a month later in a 3-0 win over Manchester City. In the following season he contributed nine goals in all competitions including a late winner in the FA Cup semi-final against Merseyside rivals Everton and Liverpool’s consolation in their final defeat to Chelsea. Whilst he had not scored the number of goals many had expected from him, he did enough to impress England manager Roy Hodgson and was included in his country’s Euro 2012 squad.

Following a drab 1-1 draw with France in their opening group game England took on Sweden on a balmy Friday night in Kiev. After 23 minutes Steven Gerrard sent in a high cross from the right which was met by the head of Andy Carroll to score, in my opinion, the best headed goal of all time. This may seem like hyperbole but just watch. The jump. The straining neck muscles. The placement. Sensational. England muddled through to the quarter-finals of the tournament where they faced Italy in a tedious 0-0 draw which only sprung to life during the penalty shootout. England’s tactics for the game can be summed up by the fact that their highest number of completed passes were between England’s keeper, Joe Hart, and Andy Carroll. Italy’s can be summed up by Andrea Pirlo’s shootout penalty. You can watch the great man explain why making Joe Hart look silly was funny here. 

Upon his return from the Euros Carroll was farmed out on loan to newly promoted West Ham United where he scored seven goals in twenty-four games in a, sadly increasingly typical, injury hit season. Nevertheless, the Hammers made the move permanent ahead of the 2013/14 season only for the big man to miss the first half of the season with a heel injury. An ankle injury sustained during pre-season ruled him out of the first three months of the 2014/15 season but Carroll returned in style with five goals in eight games between December 2014 and January 2015 only to tear a knee ligament in February which ruled him out for the rest of the season. A goal against former club Liverpool and a hat-trick against Arsenal were highlights of a purple patch in the 2015/16 season whilst a stunning bicycle kick against Crystal Palace was a candidate for Goal of the Season the following year. However, these moments of glory were all to often punctuated by long spells on the sidelines.

Carroll is now back where it all began with Newcastle United but injury, and a global pandemic, have limited his role in the Magpies 2019/20 season. The wild child of his first spell with the club is a distant memory and the married father-of-two has modelled for H&M and invested his earnings wisely. It’s a shame Carroll’s fragile body has prevented him from adding to the aforementioned wonder strikes in recent years but, if he fancies a pint and a chat about that header against Sweden, I know a brother and sister team that would be more than happy to get the round in.