Pardew offered a different take. "I don't want this animosity but Andy's slightly misguided; he's emotional at the moment, he's a local boy and that's understandable," he said. "We certainly didn't twist his arm to get on the helicopter. He had a five-year contract, a contract we said we would renew in the summer. He wanted to renew it straight away."
When Newcastle declined to offer a lucrative new agreement immediately, Carroll is said to have asked to speak to Liverpool and his manager told him to put that request in writing. "That was when the power shifted," said Pardew. "Liverpool's offer was enormous, the figure is extraordinary for a 22-year-old who has done six months in the Premier League but, if Andy had really wanted to stay, he could have stayed."