Will Liverpool’s Andy Carroll score a hat-trick like Rooney or have a debut to forget like Torres?

Andy Carroll of Liverpool

Related Links

Teams

Players

By James Daly

After his wallet-pounding move from Newcastle to Liverpool, Andy Carroll is finally expected to make his debut this weekend. Despite shelling out a whopping £35 million more than a month ago, Kenny Dalglish & Co have had to wait while the striker recovers from a thigh injury.

How will the Reds fans take to him? How will he fit into the line-up? How will his ponytail look cascading down the back of a red shirt? All these questions should be answered on Sunday when bitter rivals Manchester United roll into town.

But the burly striker should take heed from some of his predecessors in the list of most expensive Premier League forwards, where the introduction hasn’t always been the stuff of dreams.

Goal.com UK looks a the top 10 priciest forwards in Premier League history and how they got on in their first games.

Fernando Torres – £50m
Liverpool to Chelsea
Debut: February 6, 2011 v Liverpool
Goals: 0

Oh Fernando. On paper it was the perfect debut, the chance to prove he was worth his hefty price tag against the team he’d just left to join Chelsea. Call it fate, call it an off day, call it a love of the Reds so strong it caused him to misfire, but his Blues debut ended after 66 minutes with little to show for it. He is yet to get off the mark for the west London club.

Carlos Tevez – £47m
Manchester United to Manchester City
Debut: August 15, 2009 v Blackburn
Goals: 0

No goals either for the Argentinean terrier after coming off the bench at Blackburn following his cross-town switch from the red to the blue half of Manchester. His first City goal arrived two weeks later at Crystal Palace – where fans would surely have started to question the move if he hadn’t scored. Has gone on to hit 50 goals in 75 games.

Robinho – £32.5m
Real Madrid to Manchester City
Debut: September 13, 2008 v Chelsea
Goals: 1

The excitement was palpable throughout the land when the Brazilian arrived in Manchester and despite claiming to be delighted to sign for Chelsea, he settled in quickly at Eastlands, scoring after just 13 minutes of his debut, ironically against the Blues. No wonder he was confused. He hit another 11 in 18 during a big purple patch before it all went very, very wrong.

Andriy Shevchenko – £30.8m
AC Milan to Chelsea
Debut: August 13, 2006 v Liverpool
Goals: 1

The first fanfare signing of the gold tinted Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge and while his spell for the Blues was widely considered a massive flop, he did score on his debut, netting in the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool with a well-taken finish. His first league goal came a week later against Spurs – his 300th in top flight and international competition – but they pretty much dried up after that.

Dimitar Berbatov – £30.75m
Tottenham to Manchester United
Debut: September 16, 2008 v Liverpool
Goals: 0

After the Bulgarian had sulked and pouted for the whole of August including a spell in which he refused to play for Tottenham he got his move to Old Trafford, a transfer that at the time broke a British record, but it wasn’t all a bed of roses. A disappointing debut against Liverpool and it took Berba another four games before he opened his league account.

Edin Dzeko – £27m
Wolfsburg to Manchester City
Debut: January 15, 2011 v Wolves
Goals: 0

There were plenty of goals on Dzeko’s City debut – seven in total – sadly he scored none of them as his new team ran out 4-3 winners. Not quite the introduction home fans were expecting after a £27m transfer from the Bundesliga. And they are still waiting for a league goal from the Bosnian, despite strikes against Notts County and Aris Salonika.

Wayne Rooney – £25.6m
Everton to Manchester United
Debut: September 28, 2004 v Fenerbahce
Goals: 3

This is the debut Carroll will be hoping to replicate. A fresh faced Rooney, only 18 years old and with the biggest price tag ever for a player under 20 on his shoulders, took it all in his stride as he swept in an impressive hat-trick against the Turks, in addition to laying on an assist. It was a debut straight out of a Roy of the Rovers comic book.


Mario Balotelli – £24m
Inter to Manchester City
Debut: August 19, 2010 v FCU Poli
Goals: 1

As expected with the wildy talented and hot-tempered Italian, his debut goal was followed by a yellow card. A powerful strike after 72 minutes was a hint at the ability of the 20-year-old but a booking for petulance and an injury right at the death was a damning indication of the sort of frustrating career one can expect from the forward.

Luis Suarez – £23m
Ajax to Liverpool
Debut: February 2, 2011 v Stoke City
Goals: 1

The perfect debut: in front of your home fans against a team famously bad on the road. The stage was set, and the Uruguayan didn’t disappoint, coming off the bench and netting in front of the Kop with 11 minutes to go. His energetic display was just the tonic for Reds fans feeling bitter about losing Torres to Chelsea days before.

Darren Bent – £20m
Sunderland to Aston Villa
Debut: January 22, 2011 v Manchester City
Goals: 1

A rather strange one this transfer; widely regarded as a competent striker, but a £20m player? Surely not! Especially after his £16.5m flop to Spurs. But a debut goal for Villa against Manchester City – a typical poacher’s effort – certainly silenced some doubters. Bent has netted just twice since.

Follow James Daly on