Andy Carroll has revealed his life was 'turned upside down' after the striker was 'forced' to leave Newcastle United.

Carroll was ready to sign a new deal with his boyhood club when Newcastle received a £35m offer from Liverpool on deadline day in January, 2011. Before Carroll knew it, the number nine was on Mike Ashley's helicopter bound for Merseyside to become the most expensive British footballer of all-time.

"I was happy at Newcastle," the 36-year-old stressed in a new Premier League Stories documentary. "I had just bought my house and I was ready to sign a new contract at Newcastle. What happened? My life just got turned upside down. I was forced to go. I didn't really want to go to Liverpool. I wanted to stay. I wanted to play for my team.

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"I went from a normal guy in Gateshead to the £35m record and not being able to walk outside my house. It was hard to try to be myself. It was hard to completely change your life, your lifestyle and who you were as a person. You couldn't just walk down the street and think you were normal anymore because, to everyone else, you weren't. I was injured at the time. It was tough to get restarted with new lads I had not really met. I was fresh off an injury. I didn't really know the staff. I didn't really know the area."

What a contrast to Carroll's time at Newcastle. Carroll felt so at home at St James' Park that Kevin Nolan recalled how his former team-mate 'flicked the switch and became this animal and beast' once he entered the field. In fact, Carroll scored nearly twice as many Premier League goals (11) in his final half-season at Newcastle than he did during his entire spell at Liverpool (six).

Carroll would eventually return to Newcastle, following seven years at West Ham United, having found himself in a 'dark place' after a series of serious injuries. However, that second spell on Tyneside did not pan out how the veteran imagined.

"I thought, 'That's it. I'm home. I'm free. I'm going to enjoy myself and get back to where I know I can be,'" he added. "But when I went up there, COVID happened. I pictured it a lot differently. We didn't really have much going about us at the time. We had no fans in the stadium and it was a really tough time."