'I was last person to see Liverpool signing before he left club – he didn't want to go'

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Kevin Nolan has claimed that Andy Carroll didn't want to go through with his £35million transfer to Liverpool . The 37-year-old – who currently plays for National League South side Dagenham & Redbridge – came through the academy at Newcastle United and made his name in the Premier League in the first half of the 2010/11 season.

With 11 goals in 19 games, the ex-England striker was wanted by the Reds, who worked out a then-club record fee of £35m to secure his services. Prior to travelling to Anfield for his medical, Carroll visited his then-Magpies team-mate Nolan as the former Newcastle captain claimed Carroll never wanted to leave St James' Park.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast , the former West Ham skipper said Carroll wanted to become a legend at his boyhood club and wear the famous No.9 shirt, like Alan Shearer before him.

Nolan said: "He [Carroll] didn’t want to go, he didn’t want to leave. They [Newcastle] were just like, ‘No, we’ve got £35m’. I remember sitting with him, he’d come to my house. Everyone was looking for him and he kept getting calls. I was talking to him, it was like £29m… £31m, and I’m like, ‘What, for him?’

"We had a really good six months. We’d been good [together] in the Premier League , terrorised a few and we were getting a nice little partnership. It was taken away… And we had a good squad. With Andy, he was leaving mine to go and get on the helicopter [to Liverpool ].

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"He said ‘I don’t want to go’. He was a Newcastle lad and wanted to be a Newcastle legend, to wear the Newcastle No.9 for years." The 43-year-old suggested the lack of a support system in Merseyside contributed to his lack of success at Anfield, scoring just 11 goals in 58 games before leaving for West Ham in 2012.

Nolan added: "Obviously, the scrutiny of the £35m, going to Liverpool, different mentality, not being around your family and friends and everything else… It was difficult for him. He moved with his then girlfriend and I think he found that difficult.

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"The transition of being there [Liverpool] and not having the support system that he would have had in Newcastle." Carroll - who made an emotional return to Newcastle in 2019 - previously opened up about his stint at Liverpool, admitting the failure was required to help him grow as a person.

Talking to the The Mail in 2019, the Gateshead-born striker said: "I was injured at the time and all I’m thinking is, ‘Please, just fail the medical’. The minute I got on that helicopter I wanted to come back. I knew it had to happen. Whatever age, I needed to walk back on that pitch and play for Newcastle again.

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"I remember leaving here [Newcastle’s training ground] in Kevin Nolan’s car because loads of people were outside. We went to his house and watched it on TV. I was like, ‘I’m not going’. I’d just bought a house and a cat the day before! But then I was told, ‘You’re going’ and that was that/