BRENDAN RODGERS must be waiting for the men in white coats to turn up, after his ‘nutcase’ comment came back to haunt him.

The new Liverpool boss last month insisted he would let Andy Carroll go on loan only if he could be replaced with another established striker.

But after Carroll joined West Ham for the rest of the season Liverpool struck out in their attempts to lure Clint Dempsey or Daniel Sturridge to Anfield.

And nobody knows better than Rodgers that his Kop team is perilously short on firepower up front as they prepare to face Arsenal at home today.

Incredibly, Luis Suarez is the only Liverpool striker who has scored a League goal.

Before the transfer window closed, Rodgers declared: “I need a minimum of three strikers — once the window shuts, that is it until January.

“I have got Luis Suarez, Fabio Borini and Andy Carroll. So I would need to be a nutcase to even consider at this moment to let Andy Carroll go out, unless there are other solutions for that.”

Suarez is now the only recognised front-line striker at Anfield — Borini, a £10.5million summer signing from Roma, is more accustomed to playing out wide.

That leaves just 17-year-old Raheem Sterling as the only other forward on Liverpool’s books who has started a Premier League match.

And he has started only once!

Rodgers sounded far from convincing as he tried to disguise his transfer market frustrations by pointing to his painful past.

Privately, he was far from happy that the club’s American owners refused to sanction the £7m purchase of Dempsey from Fulham, arguing he was too old at 29 to justify that price tag.

But Rodgers put a brave face on it, insisting he knew he would have to adopt a softly-softly approach to changing things round at Anfield.

And he said he was happy to go along with that, after coming badly unstuck at Reading, when he dived in headfirst and tried to organise an overnight revolution. He lasted just six months at the Madejski Stadium, and he said he had learnt from those mistakes.

Rodgers explained: “My short time at Reading was a big learning experience for me. They had just missed out on promotion, and I felt a lot of the players needed to move on — but with hindsight I probably tried to change things too quickly.

“And I knew what the situation would be here in terms of the budget, because after spending millions upon millions the finances need to be hauled in.

“Hopefully, the steps we have taken so far will stabilise things and we can look to make more signings in future.

“I am definite about my footballing philosophy, the type of football I want to play, and that should help me identify my targets in future.

“It’s like walking into a library — if you don’t have a definite idea of what you’re looking for you could end up with a book you don’t really want.

“But I know exactly which section to look in, and in that sense it becomes quite straightforward.”

 

 

 

ANDY CARROLL was forced to quit Liverpool after boss Brendan Rodgers told him he would not be guaranteed a place on the bench — let alone in the team.

The £35million striker had been desperate to prove himself to the new Anfield manager after a slow start to his Kop career.

But the big Geordie soon realised that Rodgers was hell bent on kicking him out of the door.

Yet SunSport can reveal Carroll, 23, was so confident of proving Rodgers wrong that, when he joined West Ham on loan last week, the frontman himself insisted on a recall clause that he could return to the Reds in January.

Carroll had a barnstorming debut for the Hammers at the weekend in the 3-0 league win over Fulham.

It made him an instant cult hero at Upton Park despite the fact he went off with a hamstring injury, which has ruled him out of Friday’s World Cup qualifier for England in Moldova.

Meanwhile, Liverpool produced an insipid display in a 2-0 home defeat to Arsenal, which highlighted Carroll’s absence in glorious Technicolour.

While the hitman is revelling in linking up again with friends like West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan and boss Sam Allardyce, Carroll never wanted to quit Merseyside.

When he first heard that Rodgers — who built a reputation for free-flowing passing football while at Swansea — might not fancy him and his more primitive playing style, Carroll’s response was simple: “I’ll show him.”

He went to Euro 2012 and scored a cracker against Sweden before returning with a burning ambition to build on his England showing for Liverpool.

Rodgers made it clear he would be bringing in other players and that 6ft 3in Carroll would have to fight for his place. But the forward was not bothered — he was up for the battle.

What Carroll was not fully aware of was that Rodgers was not issuing a challenge to show he could fit in — he was not interested in keeping him, no matter what he did.

The Northern Irishman had already decided that Carroll would not be part of his plans and he had to find a way of getting rid of him.

As the transfer deadline approached, Carroll was still digging in, even when he was told by the club that Clint Dempsey was supposedly arriving from Fulham.

But it was then that a desperate Rodgers delivered the bombshell to Carroll that there would be plenty of big games when Carroll would not even be in his 18-man squad and that, if he wanted regular football, he would have to leave.

Carroll knew it was not what the Liverpool fans wanted. They had always been hugely supportive in the days when he struggled to justify his huge price tag.

In fact, some supporters turned up outside Carroll’s house, chanting his name and begging him to stay.

Carroll, though, had been forced into a corner and moved to West Ham.

However, he insisted on a rider being put into the deal that he could be recalled in January — not that Rodgers was bothered whether the clause was included or not.

Now, though, Liverpool are short of options after Dempsey joined Tottenham instead of Liverpool because Rodgers’ US bosses would not support him in the transfer market.

Carroll privately concedes he does not feel he could ever play for Rodgers again as the manager is so adamant he does not fit his blueprint.

The only way that could change is if Rodgers were to admit he had made a mistake. It would be a spectacular climbdown but Liverpool are in such a mess, he could be forced to eat humble pie.

It takes a brave man to admit he was wrong but it might be the making of Rodgers at Anfield.