OPINION
Tony Cascarino claimed the career of Newcastle United attacker Andy Carroll had nosedived ahead of the Magpies facing Bournemouth on Saturday.
The pundit was asked whether Carroll’s career had suffered a nosedive, and confidently said yes before moving on to discuss another player who had potentially fallen from grace.
“Yes,” said Cascarino on talkSPORT (8:34am, Saturday, November 9th).
Georgie Bingham than explained what exactly was meant by them looking for people to name footballers whose careers have nosedived and highlighted the example that started the debate was how Danny Drinkwater went from winning the Premier League to being unused at Burnley.
“We are doing careers which nosedived after one of our listeners suggested that Danny Drinkwater was the biggest fall from grace we had seen for a while,” explained the talkSPORT host.
While Carroll may not have lived up to Liverpool spending £35million on him in 2011, which was a club-record fee for them at that time (Source: BBC Sport), it’s hard to say his career nosedived.
After all, following his disappointing spell at Anfield where he managed just 11 goals in 58 outings, he didn’t exactly drop down the leagues.
Carroll went to West Ham where he ended up scoring 34 goals in 142 games for them, and while his injury record stopped them being able to count on him, it’s not exactly a fall from grace.
You’ve also got to remember the Liverpool Carroll was with, weren’t a side who were genuine title contenders like they are now.
Also in case, Cascarino missed it, Carroll is still currently playing in England’s top-flight with Newcastle United and he’s not doing too shabby.
The 30-year-old may have only played limited minutes, he has featured five times with his playing time totalling 90 minutes (Source: WhoScored), but he has been a spark for Steve Bruce’s side.
Carroll has come off the bench in games not only to lift the crowd, which can be argued has helped, but to be a nuisance for his opponents.
The veteran has won 2.8 aerial duels per game, as per WhoScored, which has seen his team retain possession and it’s rather telling that he has been fouled 0.8 times per match as it shows his opponents can’t stop him fairly that often.
Also with Carroll still playing, who knows what heights he can reach before he hands up his boots?
The 30-year-old may make the role of impact sub his own at St James Park and contribute enough goals to make everyone sit up and take notice.
So with that in mind, you do think it’s harsh for Carroll to be labelled as someone’s career who has nosedived, and it’s the type of remarks that will surely rile him up to ensure no other pundit says anything similar anytime soon.
