If Villa have still got Heskey is there something dodgy going on in football we don't know about?

Like when Liverpool buy Andy Carroll for 35 million. I mean why decide to give Carew away for free over Heskey, take 17 million for Young instead of about 22 million, i see players like Seb Larsson or similar players on free transfer and Villa decide to buy a worser players for money knowing Seb Larsson is 'better' i think something dodgy is going on.