Carroll in limbo as Liverpool refuse to let him go home on loan

Andy Carroll: Striker to return to home-town club in an amazing piece of business (Getty Images)

Liverpool last night flatly rejected what they considered to be a poor value bid from Newcastle United to take back Andy Carroll on a season-long loan.

Manager Brendan Rodgers is willing to consider bids to buy the player Liverpool paid £35m for 18 months ago, but Newcastle's proposal that the Anfield club continue to fork out half the 23-year-old's £75,000-a-week wages leaves the two sides a considerable distance apart.

A commitment to buy the player at the end of the loan did not form part of the Newcastle proposal received over the weekend by Liverpool, despite Alan Pardew's club indicating yesterday that they do want to make the loan deal permanent for a fee of £17m – less than half what Liverpool paid them for him. As of last night, Liverpool were not contemplating a straight loan deal, let alone one they consider to be fairly derisory. They did not make any formal comment.

The fact that Newcastle's offer was made public will not delight Liverpool, who leave for their pre-season tour of North America this morning, as it may potentially unsettle Carroll and might encourage him to demand Rodgers let him go if he feels he does not fit in tactically.

West Ham, Aston Villa and Fulham all made initial approaches to Liverpool that were ruled out last week, as Carroll and his representatives insisted privately that he was not prepared to leave unless the right club entered the race for his signature. The allure of a return to the club where he had such a dramatic impact in his first full season as a regular in the Premier League could be too good to turn down if, as seems likely, Newcastle's move proves to be the first step towards a more serious negotiation strategy.

Questioned a week ago on reports that the Milan president Pier Silvio Berlusconi may have been interested in taking Carroll on loan, Rodgers said that loan deals did have their benefits – prompting last week's approaches to Liverpool. Rodgers feels the England striker, purchased at a premium price by Liverpool's former director of football Damien Comolli, is now dispensable.

Newcastle's audacious move comes after the break-down of their attempts to buy the Dutch striker Luuk de Jong. They had been prepared to pay £12m for him, only for FC Twente, his club side, to increase the fee to £16m. With doubt over Demba Ba's position at the club, Pardew admitted for the first time last week that he wanted to sign a striker.