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Following close on the heels of the aftermath from the sacking of Newcastle United boss, Hughton, comes another media storm for the Northern club. After several weeks insisting that Andy Carroll was under no circumstances for sale, Monday night duly saw the deal done – the Geordie born and bred player signed with 7^th placed Liverpool. Personally, I found it unlikely that a man like Mike Ashley, Newcastle United’s owner, could (or more aptly, would) turn down a £35m deal for a promising but unproven footballer.

Are we surprised? No, probably not. Loyalty is not something that runs deep in football. Having said that; with better opportunities and a more substantial pay packet there are few people who would turn down a move.

Liverpool FC managed to turn their PR disaster into a media success story, whilst losing one of their best players in Torres they gained Dutch footballer of the Year, Suarez, and promising striker Carroll. However, Newcastle United has a bigger battle on their hands. The saga around the obscene amount of money for an injured 22 year old who’s played top flight football for a matter of months may be simmering but the feud between Carroll and his old club is bubbling. Whilst the player, who has only scored 34 professional goals (not sure he’s worth £1million per goal), insists he was forced to hand in a transfer request, his ex-manager Pardew has now issued a statement to say Carroll walked due to his contract not being improved – we can only assume this means financially

Is this tale on route to turning into a PR disaster for Newcastle? Whilst I have no doubt that Carroll is most likely more focused on money than feeling “unwanted by [his] home club”, it would also be hard to imagine that Mike Ashley having seen the potential available sum, didn’t force Carroll’s hand. Will we ever find out? If we do, it will have some form of damaging effect on Ashley’s position in football… If it’s possible to damage Mike Ashley’s image any further.

Related articles

• Andy Carroll was not forced to leave Newcastle says Alan Pardew, who also questions player’s motives (telegraph.co.uk)

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As a football fan (who happens to be a woman) and discouraged that the attitudes towards women in the game remain completely behind the times. Prior to Kenny Dalglish’ first win since returning to his managerial career at Liverpool, Richard Keys and Andy Gray were overhead trying to come to terms with the fact there would be a lineswoman, Sian Massey, during the match.

Keys, the face of Sky Sports football coverage since 1992, was vehement that “women do not know the offside rule”. I assume, therefore, that her training and exams were not as thorough as if she were a man. Perhaps both presenters should have waited until the game had actually kicked off before judging Massey’s ability as a lineswoman. The female assistant referee made a critical decision in the lead up to Torres’ first goal; she kept her flag down even though Keys and Gray insisted the goal should be ruled as offside. Her decision was completely the right one as replays show Raul Meireles was, in fact, onside. But don’t worry boys; this was probably just a result of woman’s instinct rather than knowledge of the offside rule, right?

One of our clients, Race for Opportunity (RfO), has worked hard to deliver race diversity campaigns to influence leaders in the UK’s best known organisations. The FA has worked hard to deliver the same results as RfO in the football world. It is now time the organisation took more of public stance on sexism in the sport, just as some of the influential figures in football have taken to Twitter to show their support for Massey.

@danwalkerbbc: Drove past a game of girl’s football today being ref’d by a man! The world’s gone mad

@RobbieSavage8: It’s irrelevant the gender of a lino it’s about getting the decisions right and Massey got it spot on a great decision well done Massey !

@rioferdy5: Did anyone see the decision the lineswoman made in the liverpool vs wolves game…top decision. Judge them like men on their ability to ref.