Sam Allardyce: "I have proved most of the time that when I get a football club, it improves from where it was.
"That was going be the case at Newcastle. I was not given enough time, but there is no bitterness towards the club.
"I'm not sure that apart from Arsene (Wenger) and Sir Alex (Ferguson), anyone else has managed at this level for as long as I have.
"I take a huge amount of pleasure in having been able to sustain my ability in the best league in the world.
"I had Andy Carroll as a young man when I was there – you could see the raw talent.
"They love a No9, and it's a big ask to live up to the expectation, but he's brave, he's fearless, and he has exceptionally good ability, particularly aerially, as we saw against Arsenal.
"There are few players that could score goals of that type today, and that's why he's such an exciting player.
"In the beginning it was Emile Heskey, and we all know the one thing Emile couldn't give the England side was goals. He could make a lot of goals and could create opportunities but you had to rely on other players scoring.
"Then Peter Crouch has been tried, and I think Andy Carroll is emerging now and on the back of a very good start to the Premier League – and six goals to boot – he deserves to be included."