REVEALED : Toon rated Carroll at just £1m last season
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LIVERPOOL'S £35million striker Andy Carroll was officially valued at £1m by Newcastle at the start of last season. And relegated Toon were not even convinced they should keep Carroll for their promotion push back to the Premier League - marking him down as one of their squad to "monitor".
SunSport can today reveal the incredible change in fortunes for both Carroll, 22, and owner Mike Ashley after we learned of the club business plan for 2009-10.
The document was put together for prospective bidders after Ashley publicly declared he wanted to sell the club.
It is a detailed breakdown of the entire 21-man senior playing staff, including their individual transfer values along with a key code next to each name indicating whether they should be retained, sold or monitored.
Carroll was involved in the Newcastle side which went down to the Championship. But his future, like many Toon stars, was up in the air.
He had scored only three goals in 14 Premier League games and the jury was out.
However, the big forward hit the ground running in the Championship campaign - bagging 17 goals in 39 matches as Newcastle romped to the title.
Then, after continuing with 11 in 19 games in the Premier League this season and winning a first England cap against France, Carroll's value went through the roof.
Spurs tried to get him for £20m in January but Kop boss Kenny Dalglish struck on transfer deadline day after selling Fernando Torres to Chelsea for £50m.
A Newcastle source said: "There were soundings taken around the club about how players should be valued and there was a feeling Andy still had to prove himself.
"He was a young lad who wasn't established in the first team and he had limited experience in the Premier League.
"It was a case of seeing how he got on at the start of last season. "Andy did really well and started scoring plenty of goals. "But if anyone had come in with a £1m offer that summer you wonder what the club would have done."
The likes of Obafemi Martins, who scored Sunday's Carling Cup winner for Birmingham against Arsenal, and Sebastien Bassong were both given £8m price tags - and were sold in the summer of 2009.
Martins had been listed as one to sell and went to German side Wolfsburg for £9m. Bassong, in the retained column, was still flogged to Spurs for his £8m valuation.
Newcastle were desperately trying to get the high wage-earners off their books as they prepared for life in the lower division.
And they were ready to take a big hit on the fees they had paid. Defender Fabricio Coloccini, who had joined for £10.5m from Deportivo La Coruna a year earlier, was on sale for £3m because the Toon wanted to save on his £70,000-a-week wages.
Argentinian wideman Jonas Gutierrez, signed for around £10m a year before, was also up for grabs at £3m. Irish winger Damien Duff, rated at £3m, went to Fulham for that amount and defender Habib Beye joined Aston Villa for £2.5m - even though both were identified as players to keep.
Newcastle were also trying to shift Spanish full-back Jose Enrique for just over half what they had paid for him two years earlier. Enrique cost £6.3m from Villarreal but was marked as one to sell for £3.5m. Enrique, who had not impressed at the time, is now considered one of Newcastle's most valuable assets but will only have a year left on his contract at the end of this season.
Liverpool are interested in reuniting him with Carroll and Newcastle will probably cash in if they get an offer of around £10m.
The Toon were also planning to offload Alan Smith, on £60,000 a week, for £3m and striker Shola Ameobi for £2m. But there were no takers. Nor could a deal be done for Joey Barton, also on £60,000.
The midfielder was valued at £1.5m and listed in the sell column. Barton had been involved in a late-season bust-up with caretaker boss Alan Shearer and the club had made it plain he could go.
Newcastle's relegated squad was valued at £56m in total.
The aim was to bring in £28m from player sales - and they were on the way to achieving their target with the transfers of Beye, Duff, Bassong and Martins.
The Toon insider added: "The document would have been available to anyone who wished to go through the due diligence process with a view to buying the club.
"Carroll was really an unknown quantity at the time and considering he was only valued at £1m, you have to say Ashley has done fantastic business to get £35m for him."
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i rate him at 2m at most right now.........................
Liverpool will be lucky to even get 8-10m back in a season or two..................
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This carroll is not proven at the highest level yet but I think he'll make it. Good header, finishing, can hold the ball, able to run into scoring positions......just like a shearer.
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at most i rated him at 5 to 10m
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many times, you look at a player's face and you can tell can make it or not.............
Carroll cannot make it.....................
example.................when Adriano (former Inter Milan) was at Parma..................you see his face you can tell there's a lot of ''menace'' in his face.............
later when he lost all form......................he looks like a smiling buddha..................totally harmless-looking..............
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I think he will come good in time but the present day, he was over-priced by Newcastle...
I will be fair to say he should be worth at about $20m just for being English, young and also shown some good potential... He is a risk but could come good.
The only thing that will always be hard to justify is the sum he was sold at this present time...