Liverpool: Liverpool have offered Andy Carroll to Manchester City in a sensational straight swap deal for wantaway striker Carlos Tevez, but the Premier League leaders have rejected the offer, according to a report in the Guardian.
The paper claims City's football administrator Brian Marwood rejected the approach from the Merseyside club, which was made on Thursday, outright.
Carroll, who was a £35 million deadline day signing in January last year, has scored just six goals in 35 appearances in all competitions for the club since his move to Anfield, and did start in the FA Cup fourth-round victory over Manchester United on Saturday afternoon.
The striker, who has struggled since his big move, did not find the net but used his physical prowess in the area as Daniel Agger headed in the first and then set up Dirk Kuyt for the late winner.
Meanwhile, Tevez remains with Roberto Mancini's side despite his desire to leave and the club's willingness to offload the Argentina international.
Serie A club Inter Milan have withdrawn from negotiations to sign the striker, as have French side Paris Saint-Germain. AC Milan also ended their chase of the Argentine with just three days remaining in the January transfer window, after their signing of Catania's Maxi Lopez on loan. A winter exit for Tevez now looks highly unlikely, with City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak insisting the club will not budge from their valuation of the player.
Tevez has not played for City since September last year, after refusing to warm up during the club's Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich.
Carroll was on the bench and a late introduction to the League Cup semi-final second leg between the two sides on Wednesday evening.
Kenny Dalglish has been a staunch defender of the striker publicly, but another recent report, which was vehemently denied, suggested Carroll had been offered back to his former club Newcastle United for a fraction of the £35m his old club received from the transfer just 12 months ago.
A contender last year for England's Euro 2012 squad, the 23-year-old Carroll has dropped well down the pecking order and has been in and out of the Liverpool side despite fellow forward Luis Suarez serving a long ban. His teammates have had difficulty refining their passing game to accommodate a tall frontman, but Dalglish thinks Liverpool may finally have cracked it.
"Everybody knows Andy's prowess in the air, we've tried our best to develop that further and we'll also work and be patient with him," Dalglish told ITV Sport. "His commitment was superb today so as long as you've got the right attitude and the right commitment we've got a chance of working with it."
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