Ashley key to Carroll deal - Pardew

17 July 2012 12:16

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew will leave the club's bid to lure Andy Carroll back to Tyneside to owner Mike Ashley.

The 50-year-old is keen to secure the England international's return from Liverpool, with the Magpies having had an initial bid for a loan move with an option to buy rejected.

It seems likely that the success or otherwise of their approach will come down to finance as much as anything else, but Pardew, currently in Germany with his squad at their pre-season training camp, admits that has little to do with him. "That whole process is a little bit more involved with the chairman and the board at Liverpool," he told the Evening Chronicle.

We have got a great team here, a great squad, and if Andy Carroll comes, it will only add to us.

"It's simple, really. Sometimes transfers are done at corporate level. I'm slightly detached from that. It will be what it will be.

"It's been said that he's available and if we are involved, then we will be involved because of the figures, not anything else, because we know he's good enough."

Newcastle launched their attempt to re-sign the man they sold to Liverpool for £35million in January last year after it emerged that he was not a central figure in new Reds boss Brendan Rodgers' plans for the new season.

Carroll was not among the party which flew out on the club's North American tour on Monday, although he was never intended to be after being given an extended break following his trip to the Euro 2012 finals with England.

The player, who insists he does not want to leave Anfield, has indicated he would be prepared to make a temporary switch back to St James' Park, where he made his name, although Liverpool are understood to be ready only to contemplate a permanent transfer.

However, their valuation, thought to be in the region of £20million, is significantly in excess of the Magpies', and whether or not that gap can be bridged could prove to be the crux of the matter.

Source: PA