Andy Carroll has revealed that he was allowed to head to Ibiza after being sent home from England duty. The striker was one of three U19 call-ups disciplined for sneaking out of the team hotel but got an unexpected reaction from his club manager.
Carroll's Early Career and the 2007 Incident
During the early part of his storied career, Carroll starred for his boyhood club Newcastle United and became the most expensive British player when joining Liverpool in January 2011. The 37-year-old is currently with Dagenham and Redbridge, also serving as assistant coach and a minority shareholder at the National League South club.
Carroll has captured attention throughout his playing days but first made waves off the pitch in 2007. The then-18-year-old was on loan at Preston North End from Newcastle and had earned a spot in Brian Eastick’s England U19 squad, though the international break had begun to take a toll.
The Plan to Sneak Out
The former Premier League striker, alongside Chelsea starlets Scott Sinclair and Ryan Bertrand, hatched a plan to leave the hotel. However, he and his team-mates were quickly rumbled and promptly sent home.
In his new autobiography, Owning It, Carroll wrote: “It was Ryan Bertrand who suggested a few of us go for a walk, while I came up with the idea of heading downstairs with our England tracksuits over our normal clothes so that no one would twig we were going out, before removing our tracksuits by the fire exit and leaving them under the stairs.
“Scott Sinclair got a pen and paper from reception, wrote PLEASE LEAVE THESE ITEMS - BY MANAGER'S REQUEST, and stuck the note to the tracksuits, and we used a rock to hold the fire exit door slightly open, so we could slip back in later.
"The plan was to go to a couple of bars, not to get hammered, just for a change of scenery, but we'd only got as far as McDonald's when Ryan and Scott's Chelsea team-mate Sam Hutchinson rang to say that the manager knew we were out.
"We sprinted back as fast as we could, entered through the fire exit, noticed our tracksuits were gone - B*******! - and when we got back upstairs, the goalkeeping coach Tony Parks was waiting for us, looking like his dog had died. He sent us straight to the gaffer Brian Eastick, who shouted at us for a few minutes about disrespecting our coaches, our team-mates and the shirt, before telling us that we were being sent home immediately.”
Allardyce's Surprising Reaction
The incident soon came to wider attention, with Eastick commenting on the situation: “I have found it necessary to send three players home for breaking our code of conduct. All the appropriate people have been informed and there will be no further comment at this time.”
Despite not having had a boozy night out, Carroll was prepared to face a similar reaction from then-Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce upon returning to his parent club. However, the future England manager listened to Carroll’s version of events and allowed him time off, resulting in the striker jetting off to Ibiza.
“I thought I'd never play for England again, and I assumed I'd get a proper coating when I reported for training at Newcastle,” Carroll recalled. “But Big Sam believed my explanation, told me not to worry and said I could have three days off during the international break.
“What a legend. While Scott and Ryan were probably doing laps around the pitch at Chelsea, I was having a ball in Ibiza.”
Carroll was ultimately recalled to the England set-up, eventually earning nine senior caps for the Three Lions and notably scoring in a win over Sweden at Euro 2012. The striker never played under Allardyce during his short stint at St James’ Park but later spent three seasons with the former Newcastle boss at West Ham.
