Carroll bid goes in

West Ham United are reported to have offered Liverpool £2million to take striker Andy Carroll on loan for the forthcoming season.

The 23-year-old looks set to leave Anfield with former club Newcastle also said to be interested. However the Magpies are only interested in taking the player back to the North East on a permanent basis and their valuation of Carroll is said to fall some way short of Liverpool's.

All of which means that West Ham are currently in the driving seat, with United having offered an initial £2million for the 2012/13 campaign with a rumoured fee of £17million to follow in 12 month's time - on the basis that the club wish to sign the England international on a permanent contract and that Carroll agrees to move to London.

A message posted on the Twitter account attributed to Jack Sullivan - the son of co-owner David Sullivan - on Thursday claimed that, "Dad is working on the biggest signing in the history of the club - twice as big as anything as the club have done before!"

Sullivan and fellow co-owner David Gold - who have spent the last few days in Spain meeting business associates - are yet to make a significant investment into Sam Allardyce's playing squad despite claiming at the start of the summer that around £20million would be spent on boosting it prior to the beginning of the forthcoming Premier League season.

The cost of recent signings such as Jussi Jaaskelainen, Momo Diame and Malian international striker Modibo Maiga have thus far been offset by a string of departures with the likes of Robert Green, Pablo Barrera and Julien Faubert - all players on Premier League salaries - having left the Boleyn since the end of last season.