TCIB said:
No.
When he first broke through I thought he was utter dross, the kind of player where you think straight away that he won't make it in the top flight. Even in the Championship when he was scoring goals I didn't rate him that highly, thought he didn't have the pace, guile, intelligence to make it in the Prem. Obviously he appeared to make me look like a mug to all my mates when he proceeded to piss all over Premier League defences last season. Seriously, it was ridiculous that he had made a step up in league and was performing better in almost every area of his game. No doubt he looked like a top class player for the first 6 months of last season. I was absolutely gutted when we sold him, even though the fee was absolutely extortionate because I didn't expect it to be reinvested.
Basically I'm still not sure if I have him sussed. Because since he's gone there he looks like the Championship Carroll again. He's an empty shell of a player at the moment, doesn't even look good in air or a handful which is ridiculous considering what he was doing to defences last year.
I got asked the 'would you take him back' question before we signed Cissé and I said no. I said no because for the money and wages it would take we could sign a better forward and since he left bringing him back wouldn't even rekindle the whole 'homegrown, local lad' mystique. It would have been just like signing any other player and for the money we could get better - as we've proved. Obviously now we have signed a better striker I wouldn't go anywhere near him, not in a million years. There's no way we could play the kind of stuff we did today if we had Carroll (although that's the first time we've played like that in months).
I know he's making a fucking fortune and living the high life but I actually feel a bit sorry for Carroll right now. I never thought I would do but it makes me sad seeing a local lad becoming one of English football's great comedy figures and watching him take abuse from scousers. I hope he gets out of there at the end of the season and can rekindle his career elsewhere.