"I had to Google who my team-mates were" - Andy Carroll lifts lid on Liverpool nightmare
Andy Carroll admits he only knew who two of his new team-mates were upon moving to Liverpool in 2011.
The Reds paid a then-record transfer fee for a British player when they signed the striker for £35m midway through the 2010/11 campaign.
However, Carroll struggled to make an impact at Anfield and was loaned out to West Ham in summer 2012.
And the former England international, who rejoined Newcastle earlier this month, admits he was not taking football very seriously at the time of his move to Merseyside.
"When I was last here [at Newcastle]. I’d go home, mess about with my mates, play football, go out, whatever, but I’d never watch football, I never knew any players," he told Newcastle's official website.
"I’d wake up on the Saturday morning saying, ‘who are we playing?’ It was just completely oblivious to all the football that was going on.
“I would work at the training ground and knew my tactics, but until we had a meeting I didn’t know who we were playing, unless I asked someone.
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"When I was in the helicopter down to Liverpool, I was like, ‘I know Stevie G, I know Carragher. Who else?’ My agent at the time had to tell me, and I would get it on Google and find out the team.
“It’s bad because it’s Liverpool players, but it’s not disrespectful – I just literally didn’t watch football, so I didn’t know."
Carroll has signed a one-year contract at Newcastle but is currently sidelined with an ankle injury.
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Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).