21 October 2023 , 10:46
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Andy Carroll has revealed that Kevin Nolan was furious with him for eating a 'Sunday roast' in a local pub before every match while he was playing for Newcastle.
Carroll came through the club's academy and made his first-team debut in November 2006 during a UEFA Cup win over Palermo. He went on to become a cult hero at St James' Park, scoring 19 goals in the Magpies' Championship-winning campaign as they booked an instant return to the Premier League.
The Gateshead-born striker took that form into the following year and netted 11 times in 19 matches during the first-half of the season. Throughout his time at Newcastle, however, Carroll has admitted he used to have a 'carvery' for his pre-match meal - something Nolan was not happy about.
He told the Daily Mail : "It was a change in more ways than one. 'I'll tell you this… now you eat with the team but back then at Newcastle we would just meet at 1:30 for a 3pm kick off. I will never forget, I used to go to this little pub around the corner, The White Swan. It was like a Toby Carvery. Meat, Yorkshire puddings, loads of gravy. I would eat a full roast, full Newcastle tracksuit, and then I would just go to the game and play.
"This one time Kevin Nolan rang me up and said, 'Will you pick me up cos my car's not working… where are you?' I said I'm just having a Sunday roast and he went mental, screamed at me on the phone, 'Are you joking?' and I told him I'd done that forever."
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Carroll ended up leaving his boyhood club to join Liverpool in the January transfer window, signing for the Reds in a deal worth £35million on deadline day. However, Carroll didn't continue his pre-match routine when he was at Anfield, instead swapping his diet to pasta and fruit.
Andy Carroll moved to Liverpool from Newcastle in January 2011 (Getty Images)"When I went to Liverpool, everything changed professionally," Carroll added. "We went to a hotel before the game, home and away, and had your pasta and your nice fruit," Carroll continued. I’d been eating Yorkshire puddings and gravy. Now everyone’s telling you what to eat and when to eat.
"It was mental. Suited and booted, in a hotel the night before a game, eating right with the lads. On a Friday night in Newcastle I was out with my mam and dad or my friends.
"At Liverpool it was a step up, it was elite. That was hard for me, thinking two weeks ago I was sitting in the pub eating food before a game and now I’m doing this in a suit. Obviously it’s easy to get on with it and deal with it but the change and those little details were massive."