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Andy Carroll has revealed he didn't have a clue who his Liverpool team mates were after making his £35m transfer to Anfield.

The Newcastle United striker admits used Google to research the star names he was about to join.

Carroll says he “just didn't watch football,” at the time Liverpool paid a transfer record for a British player.

Carroll is attempting to relaunch his career back at St James' Park, after leaving almost nine years ago for Merseyside.

He is several weeks away from fitness for Steve Bruce's troubled side, and has vowed to get back as soon as possible to aid his home town club.

(Image: PA)

Carroll, 29, has revealed how the Liverpool switch on deadline day in January 2011 came as a shock - requiring hasty internet searched in a helicopter.

He said: “When I was last here (in Newcastle), I’d go home, mess about with my mates, play football, go out, whatever, but I’d never watch football, I never knew any players.

“I’d wake up on the Saturday morning saying, ‘who are we playing?’ It was just completely oblivious to all the football that was going on.

“I would work at the training ground and knew my tactics, but until we had a meeting I didn’t know who we were playing, unless I asked someone.

(Image: Getty Images)

“When I was in the helicopter down to Liverpool, I was like, ‘I know Stevie G, I know Carragher. Who else?’ My agent at the time had to tell me, and I would get it on Google and find out the team.

“It’s bad because it’s Liverpool players, but it’s not disrespectful – I just literally didn’t watch football, so I didn’t know.

“It was mad. I was in the gym on the bike doing some work and it came up on Sky Sports News – £20 million rejected, £25 million rejected, £30 million rejected. Everyone’s coming in saying, ‘what’s happening?’, and I was like, basically, ‘I’m not going anywhere, I’ve got a new contract here’.

(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Image)

“And then suddenly it was, ‘go and see the gaffer’. Next thing I knew I was in a helicopter to Liverpool.

“I was happy, just about to sign a new deal, and then gone. I’d just bought a house, I’d just got a cat. It was in the house, and I never went back to the house – I left in the helicopter and my brother had to have the cat!”

Carroll wants to shake off his reputation for being injury prone, after making just 84 league starts for West Ham in seven years.

He has denied some of the more extreme incidents said to have sidelined him, but admits to a “daft side.”

(Image: Getty Images)

“I do have a silly side. I’m still a child at heart. But I’ve grown up massively. I’ve realised my mistakes in the past, and realised what I want to be, and what I am.

“There was one (story), I think last season, that I got injured trying to climb over a balcony drunk on pre-season with West Ham, and I fell off the balcony and got injured. It’s a load of ********.

“I won a game of table tennis, jumped on the table, landed, smashed the table and rolled my ankle and I’m injured. What?

(Image: Getty Images)

“It’s not my fault. I don’t want to be sitting in the gym by myself doing rehab. I want to be outside doing what I love, playing football and being with the lads.

“I’m working my ******** off to get fit. It’s non-stop.”

Carroll is hoping Bruce, already under pressure after two defeats, is the sort of manager who knows how to use a wrecking-ball big man up front.

He joined United on a free transfer on deadline day earlier this month.

He told the club's website: “I really enjoy just getting involved and throwing myself around. You need to be in the mix. You see most teams now trying to look for the smaller, more athletic players.

“It’s nice to know there’s some managers out there who appreciate that that’s not what it’s all about, and that you can change it up, chop it up.

(Image: Marc Atkins)

“I actually think there needs to be more players like this.”

For now Carroll will slog on with his rehab, and dream of the day he pulls on the black and white shirt again.

Bruce needs him back with new signing Joelinton carrying a hip injury.

He added: “I can’t wait to just walk out at St. James'. I walked into the stadium when I was signing and walked down the side of the pitch.

“I’m more buzzing to put it on now, the shirt, than I was when I was 17. I’m so excited.”