Newcastle United and Andy Carroll’s agent have played down speculation the England international will return to Tyneside this month.

Carroll became the most expensive British player when he joined Liverpool for £35 million last January but has failed to settle at Anfield.

It has been claimed the Newcastle outfit could offer Carroll a £10m escape which would also solve their striker dilemma given Demba Ba is away on Africa Cup of Nations duty.

However, sources in the north-east have insisted there has been no contact between the two clubs while Carrol’s camp have denied reports.

The striker’s agent, Mark Curtis, stressed that Carroll is “happy” at Liverpool.

Newcastle had no intention of selling Carroll in January last year until Liverpool put together a final-day offer they simply could not afford to ignore.

Their decision was greeted furiously by the Toon Army, who had hoped the club’s future would be built around the Gateshead-born player, and their mood was not improved when a replacement failed to arrive.

Newcastle made the recruitment of a big-name striker their main priority for the summer, but having spent months running the rule over a series of targets on the Continent, were unable to strike a deal which suited them.

In the meantime, however, manager Alan Pardew had taken a gamble on Senegal international Ba after a release-clause in his contract at West Ham had been activated by relegation.

Few predicted how handsomely that swoop would pay off with Ba having left for the Africa Nations Cup last week having scored 15 goals for the club to establish himself as one of the most prolific marksmen in the Premier League.

Ironically, the 26 year-old did so with speculation mounting that he could leave Newcastle during the winter transfer as news of a release-clause in his contract emerged.

Newcastle were furious that details of the player’s contract had been made public, but remain relaxed on the situation, confident that Ba is happy where he is, although knowing they may have to re-negotiate his existing contract if they are to fend off understandable interest in his this month.

In any case, the deal they struck to take him to Tyneside was complicated, and any attempt to lure him away would have to cross similar hurdles.