Ferguson questions Carroll price tag

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes Liverpool overpaid Newcastle United for the signing of Andy Carroll.

Carroll swapped St James’ Park for Anfield in January 2011 in a British-record 35-million-pound move.

Struggling to find form with the Reds and unable to secure a place in Brendan Rodgers’ side, the England striker has since been loaned out to West Ham United.

Ferguson claims the Reds should have done more research before deciding to shell out such a sum for a relatively inexperienced player at Premier League level.

“He’d (Carroll) played not a lot of games for Newcastle and had to deal with a 35-million transfer to a club like Liverpool,” Ferguson told The Sunday Mirror.

“He was young and it was quite a big jump for him for that kind of money. We’ve gambled on a couple of players in the past, a couple of million, something like that.

“But when you get to that level of 35 million pounds, you need to a bit more homework and see how he is in the second season, maybe.”

Liverpool failed to replace Carroll at the start of the season and have been left short on options in attack as a result.

Ferguson hinted that Rodgers’ inexperience might have been a factor in the transfer gaffe.

“They were after Clint Dempsey, that didn’t work out, and they had done the deal for Carroll,” he said.

“Maybe it was something they did not expect. With the manager being young, maybe he expected the deal to go through and it was not there and he had lost a player, too.”