West Ham United striker Andy Carroll has slammed Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers…
Andy Carroll will return to Anfield for the first time on Saturday since leaving Liverpool in 2013. The 26-year-old scored six league goals in 44 appearances for the Reds before Brendan Rodgers sold him to the Hammers, leaving the England international feeling somewhat hard done by.
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“With Brendan Rodgers, there was a lot going on,” said Carroll, who was quoted by the Times.
“What he was saying to me and what was actually happening [were different things]. He was telling me one thing to my face, then I’d leave the training ground and he would ring me and tell me a completely different thing.
“He would say: ‘You’re going to play every week, you’re going to play every game up front with [Luis] Suarez’. I’d leave and get home and he would ring me and say: ‘Fulham and West Ham want you and I think it’s best you should go.’ I had just had a conversation with him ten minutes ago. So I would go back and see him and he would say the opposite again.
“It was the same thing round and round and round. On phone calls, it was: ‘I think you should go.’ To my face it was: ‘You’ll start every week’. It was mixed messages. He was messing with my head. I lost respect for him, to be honest.
“Another example: I went to Hearts for the [Europa League qualifier]. I got up there. He said I was starting. I woke up in the morning and he came in and said: ‘I think you’ve got a hamstring problem, you’re not going to start.’ I said my hamstring was fine. He said I’d be on the bench. I got to the ground and I wasn’t even on the bench. I was the only one missing out.
“It was just messing me about. I was angry. I knew it was time to go. I thought I just want to play football. I didn’t need this. Under Brendan I knew I was never going to play, with what he was saying to me.
“If he had said straightaway I wasn’t going to play, I’d have said fair enough, you’re a new manager, it’s your decision. You didn’t sign me, fair enough. He did it to a few other players, too, players who are not there now. I didn’t need to speak to anyone about it. I just knew it was a breakdown. If the manager is treating me like this, [I thought] there is no reason for me to be at Liverpool.”
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