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• Liverpool offered City a straight swap of the strikers
• Tevez likely to return to Manchester City next week

Liverpool have made a remarkable bid to swap Andy Carroll with Carlos Tevez and move on their club-record £35m signing not even a year after signing him from Newcastle United.

The Anfield club contacted City on Thursday to ask how much they want for Tevez and whether they would be willing to contemplate a straight exchange with Carroll. Brian Marwood, the City football administrator, rebuffed the idea immediately, even though Carroll is a player Roberto Mancini has admitted admiring when he was at Newcastle.

The move demonstrates how Liverpool are now openly looking at offloading Carroll despite the insistence behind the scenes at Anfield that he can still play a prominent part and Kenny Dalglish’s praise for the player after the 2-1 FA Cup defeat of Manchester United.

Carroll has scored only six goals in 35 appearances since becoming the eighth most expensive footballer in history and has not even been able to establish himself as a regular starter this season.

His problems adapting on Merseyside have also left Liverpool willing to take a £10m hit on the player, with Tevez valued at £25m, though that revelation is hardly surprising considering his difficulties at Anfield, added to the sense that he has not always been fully focused.

Fabio Capello, the England manager, has already expressed misgivings about the lifestyle of a player who has managed only two league goals this season in 20 appearances.

Those remarks went down badly at Anfield, with Dalglish defending Carroll, but the questions will probably not go away until he becomes a regular scorer. Carroll’s longest run of starts this season is three games and Marwood’s decision was made on the basis that he could no longer improve their team even though Mancini has a shortage of front players at a time when Tevez’s strike is in its 11th week and Mario Balotelli is now serving a four-match suspension.

Tevez is planning to return to Manchester next week now it has become apparent that Milan are not able to meet City’s asking price and, unless anything changes before Tuesday’s transfer deadline, his adviser, Kia Joorabchian, says the Argentinian wants to re-establish himself in the team.

Whether that is possible remains to be seen, with Mancini not prepared to entertain the idea unless there is an apology from Tevez for walking out on the club and the string of other offences that have already led to him being found guilty of gross misconduct and losing almost £10m in wages, fines and lost bonuses since the start of the season.

Tevez is still a formidable striker and finished as the league’s joint-top scorer last season, but he will be returning to England with a severely damaged reputation and Liverpool’s attempt to take him along the M62 will surprise many people given his propensity for causing dressing-room problems and an apparent dislike of living in England.

There is also the fact that, approaching his 28th birthday, he would not have fitted into Liverpool’s usual policy of buying players at a young age who will keep a resale value over the course of their contract. Liverpool, however, were willing to make an exception and City would have been glad to arrange a deal after unsuccessful talks not just with Milan but also Juventus, Internazionale and Paris St-Germain. They remain open to offers for the Argentinian but will not change their mind about Carroll.

LiverpoolManchester CityAndy CarrollCarlos TevezPremier League 2011-12Premier LeagueDaniel Taylor
guardian.co.uk

Liverpool’s devotees have found a season that was going nowhere has suddenly been injected with hope

For the historic clubs there comes a moment when they will not allow themselves to be denied any longer. Liverpool set that process in motion by overcoming Manchester City in the Carling Cup semi-final and now they have removed Manchester United from the FA Cup. The latter success reverberates to a far greater degree.

When Liverpool’s followers look back on the week’s events they will not be so dull as to debate the details. The surge that is pounding through their minds even now is of the momentum that Kenny Dalglish’s side established after the interval here. It was reminiscent of the displays inspired in other days by the beaten manager.

Sir Alex Ferguson is more often associated with the ravenous ambition and limitless endeavour that distinguished Dalglish’s men in the second half. The aftermath now sees the United manager at far greater risk of a trophyless campaign. The tie was not distinguished, but the sheer impetus of Liverpool hinted that their old standing need not be out of reach permanently.

Some aspects of what was, in truth, an unkempt match can be mocked, but the victors will think only of their vindication. The extra energy with which they pummelled their opponents late in the match spoke of a team that realised its moment had come. Andy Carroll was the epitome of that.

Once again he did not score but he helped to settle the outcome by acting precisely as he is supposed to do, glancing the long ball from his goalkeeper, Pepe Reina, into the path of another forward, the substitute Dirk Kuyt, to hit the winner while Patrice Evra was stranded out of position.

If United’s thoughts were drifting towards a replay by that time, most of the crowd would have been in a similar frame of mind. The hosts, however, borrowed from the Old Trafford repertoire by somehow insisting on victory. At such a moment we recognise the fallibility that the leading clubs hide from us most of the time.

It is a little disconcerting to recognise that Paul Scholes, a retiree until his sudden return to the field, was perhaps the most accomplished performer while his stamina held up. United got 75 minutes of the technique and sheer talent that bolsters a side. On this occasion, that did not suffice.

Liverpool were the inexhaustible force. Dalglish did everything in his power to sustain that intensity. The captain, Steven Gerrard, was even sacrificed after 72 minutes so that Craig Bellamy could bring more verve to bear. The latter, so important in sending the team to that Carling Cup final with his goal against City, would help in sustaining the momentum that proved too much for United.

Dalglish, with his sharp and sardonic humour, would shun any hint that he had been masterful, yet he had made the most of the personnel at his disposal. Liverpool are no longer the sort of club that conquers out of habit. Their last major trophy was the FA Cup, in 2006. It will take much more than a result such as this to prove they have been reinstated among the elite. They stand seventh in the Premier League and a return to the Champions League appears improbable for the time being.

In such a situation, a victory over United is invaluable as an instant means of injecting hope and confidence into players and supporters alike. The context alters with a single result. No Liverpool devotee left the ground wondering what the point was of buying Jordan Henderson or, through gritted teeth, having to steel himself not to admit his dissatisfaction with Carroll in the presence of people who are not fans of the club.

Dalglish will be more relaxed and the unavailability of Luis Suárez, who is serving his ban for racist abuse of Evra in an earlier match, was no hindrance. The grandeur of Liverpool in its heyday will not return by natural right, but a win of this character must help galvanise the club. This was one ground where an FA Cup tie was met not with a yawn, but with a roar of triumph.

LiverpoolManchester UnitedKenny DalglishSir Alex FergusonKevin McCarra
guardian.co.uk

A split-second error causes Manchester United defender more angst than the Anfield boo-boys

For Patrice Evra, the most distressing part of the match had nothing to do with the incessant booing that followed him around the pitch or the chants reminding him that, as far as the Kop is concerned, he may as well take that report from the Football Association and drop it in the nearest wastepaper bin.

It was that moment when the volume had actually started to go down and it was beginning to feel as though Luis Suárez would be required to hold his nerve at Old Trafford twice in the space of three or four days in February.

It was only a passing heartbeat in which Evra found himself the wrong side of Dirk Kuyt, but it was vital. Kuyt buried his shot and, a few minutes later, the final whistle had gone and Manchester United’s forlorn No3 could be seen tossing his captain’s armband on to the pitch. Evra had not flinched during the barrage of insults that came in his direction but, as he made his way to the tunnel, his body language was of a man who knew the consequences of that split second.

“There’s only one lying bastard,” the Liverpool supporters had sung, loud and impassioned. United’s supporters responded with: “Always the victim, it’s never your fault.” The banner unfurled in the away end read: “MUFC defending titles, LFC defending racism.” Back and forth it went. Yet, overall, Evra’s ordeal centred on his mistake and this was not the day some had feared. Afterwards, Kenny Dalglish talked of the way the teams had “maintained dignity and respect and concentrated on the football”.

Only one player, Rafael da Silva, went into Mike Halsey’s notebook and it was hardly a foul laced with malice. Halsey had a fine afternoon when it comes to refereeing in a manner that takes into account how one poor decision could alter the mood. The players, as Dalglish pointed out, also deserve credit because