So would a £17m Andy Carroll improve Manchester United?

It seems a ridiculous idea I know, but so did the purchase of Eric Cantona at the time. Of course nobody in their right mind would confuse the enigmatic, technically gifted Frenchman with the battering ram that is the ponytailed Geordie but consider for a moment the potential.

Carroll is young, he is English and he is direct. Where once we had Wayne Rooney battering his way through defences, the older blue Scouser now gets few yellow cards for aggression. His sending off risk is for dissent which shows how he has turned from aggressor to complainer.

Carroll would be a game changer, with 2 wingers to feed him, much possession of the ball, he is unmarkable in the air. The knockdowns in the box, or direct efforts on goal would be many, and he would score 20 goals a season at United.

Our strikers, sans Rooney, are either the streaky form player that Robin van Perfect is or an instinctive striker or the poacher that Javier Hernandez is. Danny Welbeck is a fantastic athlete but far from the goal scorer we hope he will become.

We need an ingredient that disrupts defences, and opponents would have to mark Carroll with their biggest, strongest defender and that would make Chicarito and van Perfect one on one in the box. They’d score sackfuls!

Carroll is a bargain, well certainly compared to the fee Liverpool paid, and also the money talked about for the Diego Forlan replica that is Radamel Falcao. Falcao is a goal scorer for sure but not a creator.

Defensively Carroll is also useful, he can mark any centre-back at corners and frankly with our keeper continuing to behave like Dracula, with his fear of crosses, we need to defend stronger in the air when we are holding a lead. Carroll is a help in that regard from dead ball positions.

Who really cares about Carroll as loose cannon off the field and an injury prone player on it?

Carroll must have hated his move from Newcastle to Liverpool, two Cities known for their nightlife and working class ethics, away from home with lots of money and few reliable friends, what young man wouldn’t be at risk of off-field indiscretions? He did no worse that Rooney.

On the field his hamstrings are the problem but RVP was Mr Glass Knees and we know from Ryan Giggs and others that United are very good at handling this injury type. I think Carroll will get stronger as he gets older and that players of his type have some longevity.

Perhaps Duncan Ferguson suggests not, and they are very similar players, but Duncan was unplayable at times, and Carroll’s performance against us the season before Liverpool bought him was exactly that – unplayable.

I remain convinced United are protecting Rooney ahead of a £40m move to PSG in the summer. The player has not looked interested and dropping him for Real Madrid was a sure sign it might be over. Like David Beckham, Jaap Stam and Roy Keane before him, once Sir Alex Ferguson thinks its over then its over. I think that ridding ourselves of £220k a week wages and recouping £40m would be good business, and United on the NYSE is a business.

That money won’t go far in an inflated transfer market this summer in which Barcelona are striker hunting, as are Bayern Munich. Robert Lewandowski is sought by both, and may be more attractive options that an in-debt Manchester United. If he decides to stay in Germany or move to Spain then our options start to look limited.

Proven goals scorers are few and far between. Michu looks like Dimitar Berbatov did at Spurs and that’s enough to scare me off. Suarez is clearly also looking for a move but they wouldn’t sell him to us and we wouldn’t want that man at our Club. I quite like the new Drogba on loan at West Brom from Chelsea but can’t see them selling him to us either. However if the real Drogba returns then maybe we could snatch him.

Manchester City will also be on the lookout for a striker and will likely look to Italy despite the Mario Balotelli episode. I don’t see much there to attract us.

Slim pickings when Southampton’s Rickie Lambert is the top British goalscorer in the Premier League.

So Carroll would be my choice. A player worth a punt, with Premier League experience, young and different and at a price even Malcolm Glazer can afford.

I’m sure many of you won’t agree with me but if I’m right about Rooney then who do you think could change the way we attack and make us different when we need to be?

By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve