Carroll made the switch to Liverpool on transfer deadline day for a whopping £35million, leaving the Magpies short of options up front. Alan Pardew has since added Finnish forward Shefki Kuqi to his ranks but it is Best who now has a real opportunity to prove his worth on Tyneside. "I was probably the one person who had something to gain from Andy going," he said in The Sun. "I feel like I am wanted and it is a proper chance for me. If that's the way it has happened then that is fine by me. "Andy goes for £35million, Shola (Ameobi) is out injured, I suppose there is a bit of pressure on me. On the day Andy was sold, I spoke to him. He is a good mate of mine. "I hung around with him a lot and I was sad to see him go. I didn't want him to go and I don't think he wanted to go until things happened last minute. That's football. "I knew I had been written off after last season but that's what happens in football if you don't produce straight away. "You're just put to the back of the queue and slowly but surely forgotten about. "For the fans, I was not here any more. I just knew if I was given a chance that I could take it. "I don't think I was given a good chance." Republic of Ireland international Best, 24, has been eager for a chance on Tyneside and never gave up hope even when he did not have a look in. "I have just been taught to attack everything in life. I am not really one to sulk," he added. "I spent a whole week knocking on the door. I was saying 'Have you not being seeing what I have been doing in training? I am doing all the things the strikers who have been playing are doing and not getting a chance.' "To be fair to him, in our first conversation, he (Pardew) said 'Why should I give you a chance? You have not scored any goals or made any assists even'."
