Newcastle’s Cisse-Ba insult for Liverpool & Carroll

A nobody called Papiss Cisse came to Newcastle for 10 million pounds and has scored 7 goals in 7 games. His strike partner, Demba Ba, on a free transfer, has scored 16. Andy Carroll, who surely now claims the title for ‘flop of the season’, beating back Fernando Torres and David De Gea, cost 35 million pounds and has scored five goals in 36 games for Liverpool football club. If ever wasn’t a story about a talent being backed and given a chance at one of the biggest clubs in the footballing world of Europe, and beyond, well, there is now. Everything that was wrong about Carroll was on display as he typified the meltdown Liverpool are going through – their 2-0 loss to Newcastle signaling a sixth defeat in their last seven games. Instead of staying on his feet and rounding Magpies keeper Tim Krul for what would surely have been a game changing (and career changing) goal for the Reds, Carroll opted for the theatrics – what TV replays showed to be a blatant dive for a penalty. On 27 minutes Carroll got his second chance. A header which he put over. That was it. Newcastle scored and never looked back. The Cisse-Ba lesson the Magpies handed to the Reds is going to stick in the memory of the Kop for as long as Carroll is in the Liverpool books – you don’t buy legends, you create them.