Saturday, August 18, 2012

Allardyce Gives Up On Carroll

West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce appears to have given up the pursuit of signing Andy Carroll after claiming a deal was never agreed with Liverpool for the striker.

The Upton Park club's co-chairman, David Sullivan, had on Wednesday announced England international Carroll had snubbed a move to London.

But ahead of Saturday's Premier League season-opener against Aston Villa, Allardyce insists no £17million fee had ever been agreed with Liverpool.

Anfield boss Brendan Rodgers is thought to be prepared to sell Carroll, who was signed by Kenny Dalglish for £35m in January 2011, but the club wants as much money as possible.

And Allardyce seems to think West Ham's interest is dead in the water, as he said: "We never agreed with Liverpool any deal to be able to speak to Andy Carroll to see if he would join us.

"Whatever deal we put forward to Liverpool was not agreed to by Liverpool.

"He would have been a massive signing for us and, like everything else, when you see an opportunity you try to go for it.

"Then you get onto negotiations and once that is exhausted you move on, which was a lot sooner than people actually talked about in the media.

"The negotiations were over in a couple of weeks or so regarding whether Andy was or wasn't going to come to West Ham."

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