ANDY CARROLL JOINS LFC

Andy Carroll has tonight completed his transfer from Newcastle United to Liverpool FC and signed a 5 and a half-year-deal that will keep him at Anfield until 2016.

The Club agreed a record transfer fee with Newcastle earlier in the day for the transfer of the England international striker.

The deal was subject to the completion of a medical, which the player has now passed.

Andy Carroll will wear the No.9 shirt for Liverpool.

Liverpool take £36m gamble on Andy Carroll, a gifted forward with an explosive temper

Andy Carroll is clearly a man of intriguing contradictions. The England international is a model professional in his conduct on the pitch and happy to tie his long hair back with an Alice band or sport a ponytail. However, his conduct at the training ground or when he is out and about in Newcastle’s Bigg Market is significantly different.

Target man: Carroll has attracted a huge fee without a full season in the top flight

By Rob Stewart 11:22PM GMT 31 Jan 2011

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Though he is a throwback of a 6ft 3in targetman and is faced with the Premier League's top defenders, Carroll has collected only four bookings this season with performances that have combined brain with brawn, and discipline with determination, to great effect.

A player whose flowing locks make him look more South American than Geordie even has the initials of his young daughter embroidered into the football boots that have carried him into the England squad with a touch that is usually beyond players of his gangly gait.

The trouble is, anger management issues and dubious refuelling habits have given Carroll – who has turned his Angel of the North-type goal celebration into something of a trademark – an uncanny knack of getting into trouble when he is not playing.

His misdemeanours explain that, even though the No 9 was regarded as an heir-apparent at Newcastle, no one could ever be sure whether that was to Alan Shearer or Joey Barton. Last season he attracted headlines for the wrong reasons after an alleged row at Newcastle's training ground with Steven Taylor over a former girlfriend left the defender with a broken jaw and Carroll with a couple of broken fingers.

That Carroll shrugged off the subsequent controversy by scoring the winning goal at Doncaster as Taylor recovered in hospital was typical of Carroll. He then pushed the club he supported since childhood towards promotion from the Championship.