Andy Carroll has given a long interview to the Daily Mail this morning and what comes across is that Andy’s feet are very firmly on the ground.

Andy Carroll – in action for England 12 days ago

We wonder if a certain Chris Hughton has something to do with that?

This is what Andy told the Mail on Sunday today:

“I know everyone will be watching everything I do and every step I take, but there is no point in worrying about it,” ‘The people I listen to are a few friends and my family. Whatever anyone else says doesn’t bother me, whether it is praise or criticism.”

‘I knew I was capable of playing for England before I got the chance to,’ ‘The way I’d been playing for Newcastle helped me get the chance and it felt good, but I wasn’t really surprised it happened because in my head I knew I could do it and it was my target.”

‘I wasn’t nervous at Wembley. I don’t really get nervous about anything, to be honest. Obviously I knew it was a big game and there were a lot of fans and other people watching. But football is what I do, so there was nothing to get nervous about.

‘I know some players might worry but I am different, nothing really fazes me. I can shut everything out. When I am on the training pitch, all I am thinking about is training. Before matches, I don’t think about anything except just going out there.”

We knew Andy seemed to be unfazed in big games, since we watched him continually play well for the England Youth sides at both U19 and U21 level, and big games never seemed to get to him.

Andy seems to have that quiet confidence in his own ability, and that will help him combat all the publicity that will come his way – in fact it has already come his way  of course – but the lad seems to be handling it all extremely well.

Hey, maybe we also have  an England player who will be able to perform well at the World Cup, unlike some of our so-called stars last summer, who seemed to freeze on the World stage, and England looked completely hopeless.

We were so pleased there was a country called France also participating last summer, as they even had a civil war in their camp – and at least we didn’t see that with England, although we were just as bad as France on the field of play in South Africa.

Of course France looked so much better than England at Wembley some 12 days ago, when they were the much better side, and the 2-1 score-line was hardly indicative of how much better the French really were.

Comments welcome.