On January 31st 2011, one of the most unforgettable transfer deadline days occurred. Fernando Torres left Liverpool for Chelsea for £50m, just hours after the Reds had paid £35m for the services of Carroll from Newcastle. Once the hype surrounding the giant striker died down that evening, it became evident that the club had paid an astonishing amount of money for a fairly limited player. He cost around £10m less than Luis Suarez, who also joined that day. Like Aquilani though, Carroll arrived carrying an injury, which delayed his Reds debut for some time. He finally made his first appearance as a substitute in a 3-1 win over Manchester United in March 2011, and it took him a further month to register his first goals for the club; a double against Manchester City. They were his only goals of that season for Liverpool. In 2011/12 he scored just nine times in 47 matches, and although his FA Cup semi-final winner against Everton endeared himself to the fans- in fairness he was always quite a popular player- it was evident that his future did not lie on Merseyside. He spent the 2012/13 season on loan at West Ham, and signed for the east London club on a permanent basis last summer. To spend so much money on such an average player was one of the biggest transfer errors in Liverpool's rich and illustrious history.
