Pond life

Still in shock at seeing Andy Carroll in a claret and blue shirt and what's more we seem to have stitched up Liverpool, with Brendan Rodgers believing he could sign Clint Dempsey only for the board to fail to offer the required £6 million. A rather worrying revelation in the press today is that Liverpool can recall Carroll in the January window if they choose to, though this would be a big loss of face for Rodgers. Meanwhile Big Sam explained that he offered Carroll the chance to be "a big fish in a small pond" at Upton Park. It's fair to say that West Ham are not as big as Liverpool, though we're not exactly a small pond. More a heated jacuzzi or Premier League hot tub, the sort of thing you might see for sale at an upmarket garden centre on the A127.