Andy Carroll has opened up about the infamous reports of a 14-hour cocaine-fuelled threesome at former Newcastle United captain Kevin Nolan's house, denying the allegations in his new autobiography 'Owning It'.
The former England striker, who came through the academy at boyhood club Newcastle United, saw his breakout Premier League season in 2010 immediately accompanied by outrageous stories of his off-the-pitch antics. After scoring 11 goals in 19 games, he signed for Liverpool.
Halloween party claims
Carroll explained that a trip to a club with Nolan after defeating Sunderland 5-1 led to him asking his former skipper to host a Halloween party at his house. Among the attendees were some of Nolan's extended family and Carroll's female friends, with the nightclub paying for security guards to protect the group.
Writing in his autobiography, Carroll said: "After a fun night, I crashed out downstairs in the cinema room, and when I woke up the next day, the only story of note was about one of Kev's crew copping off with one of the girls. Hardly mind-blowing."
News of the World story
Carroll recounted how Nolan, on the way to training on the Friday, received a message about a story set to be published in the News of the World two days later, alleging that cocaine was present at the party. Carroll wrote: "As well as alleging that I 'romped' with two girls (why do people always 'romp' in tabloid stories?), they also claimed that there was cocaine 'strewn' across a table. There were pictures of it, and of the girls coming down the stairs, making it look like they were setting off on the walk of shame."
Carroll lamented the previous stories the media had written about him, while admitting the allegations of being involved in a threesome didn't cause him too much bother; instead, it was the words used to describe the situation - one he has denied occurred. He added: "The nonsense they wrote about me in relation to the story above fitted perfectly with all the other nonsense they'd written about me, including a report about me falling off a stool in a casino after ordering thirty Jagerbombs at 6.30am - before 'perking up like a meerkat'."
Drugs allegation denied
Carroll refuted the presence of cocaine at Nolan's home and placed blame on one of the security guards for the story coming out. He wrote: "When I was at school, if I found out that someone was taking drugs, I never hung around with them again. And I didn't know a single footballer who took drugs (apart from sleeping pills, but I'll come back to that later). Loads of lads at Newcastle liked a drink, but cocaine was seen as a mug's game. On top of that, the picture of the cocaine in the paper was taken in the club Tiger Tiger - you could see the name on the table!"
He added: "And guess where one of the security guards worked? That's right, Tiger Tiger. He'd also taken the picture of the girls, before selling the whole fairy tale to the News of the World."
Despite the scandal, Carroll started against Arsenal in November 2010 and scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory, paying tribute to the trust placed in him by his manager at the time, Chris Hughton. He declared: "Thank God for Chris Hughton, who believed my version of the story rather than the paper's and picked me to start at the Emirates. It was News of the World publication day, and thousands of Arsenal fans had their copies open during the warm-up."
