Jamie Carragher

Number 5

Jamie Carragher’s need to be Mr Perfect may not sit well at home at times, but he wouldn’t have it any other way, as Matthew Syed hears

It is the Monday after Liverpool’s victory against Bolton Wanderers last month. The Anfield club are third in the Barclays Premier League, riding high after two straight wins, and Jamie Carragher has an additional reason to be cheerful. He has just checked into the refurbished Savoy Hotel in London, a special treat for his wife Nicola, to celebrate the couple’s wedding anniversary.

But here’s the thing: Carragher is anxious. He cannot settle. A scene is being played out in his mind, over and over. A small mistake in the 90th minute of the match, which had no bearing on the result, is nagging away at him — and he cannot let it go. It is not only taking the edge off the day, it threatens to overshadow the international break.

“You could call it obsessive, but I have always agonised over my errors,” the 33-year-old says, sipping a glass of water in the lobby of the Savoy. “It’s strange, isn’t it? I have come down to London with my missus, have gone to watch a great show, Ghost, but I honestly feel that I don’t deserve it. My face hit the floor when the slip-up happened — and my wife immediately knew that our break wouldn’t be the same.

“I have been like that ever since I was a schoolboy. I remember playing a youth match at Anfield and, even though we won, I couldn’t celebrate because my performance was below-par. I have always wanted to play to absolute best, error-free. It is like an invisible demon, driving me to train harder, to go the extra mile, in practice sessions and in matches. That is just the way I am.”

Jonny Wilkinson has spoken of perfectionism as a blessing and curse, as have Sir Steve Redgrave and Martina Navratilova. They would doubtless relate to Carragher and his lifelong battle to reconcile his impossibly high standards with his own fallibility.

“Young players at the club say, ‘I have to be like Carra in training’ because they can see that I put in a shift in every session,” he says. “But why should I rest on my laurels just because I have been in the top flight for so long?

“I am always looking to up my game because I feel that I still have something to prove. Even today some Liverpool fans are asking questions about my age and how long I will last. The club has just signed a new centre back [Sebastián Coates], who will be knocking at the door. There is no room for complacency.”

There can be few more honest or eloquent footballers than Carragher. As the interview progresses, he discusses football in all its intricacy — tactics, statistics, training methods — as well as the players he has played with and against. But it is when probing his psyche, the mechanisms that make him tick, that he is at his most compelling.

When I approach the question of why he retired from international football he hardly breaks stride. “Being a squad player is not enough,” he says. “I live for the fight. That is why I got tired of going to World Cups and qualifying games without being a part of the team.

“I did an interview the other day because it was the ten-year anniversary of the 5-1 defeat of Germany and the journalist asked if it was the greatest game I had ever played for England. But how could it be when I only played for ten minutes as a sub? I am not going to take credit for that.”

He also pinpoints another reason for his ambivalence. “It is a funny thing, but playing for Liverpool has always meant more to me than playing for England,” he says. “That does not mean I am unpatriotic or do not care about my country. It just means that, when it comes to football, my pride in Liverpool exceeds my pride in England. It is not a conscious preference, but it does say a lot about me as a person.

“I was brought up in Bootle and my mum still lives in the same house. This is where I learnt to play football and learnt about life. The connection with my roots is not about location, it is about culture and values and millions of other things that are difficult to define. People sometimes wonder why I am quite a modest person, but the reason is simple. If you are flash and arrogant in Liverpool, you are quickly brought back down to earth. That is the way it is.”

Carragher’s umbilical link with Liverpool makes it unthinkable that he would leave the club he joined as a schoolboy (he had initially supported Everton when growing up before slowly and painfully switching allegiance). “My contract is up for renewal in two years, but I would not want to play for any other club,” he says. “Life is not just about money. There are other things, important things, that have a different kind of value. Anyone from Liverpool could tell you that.”

Although Carragher is fixated upon football, it would be unfair to characterise him as a one-dimensional person. Quite the reverse. When we discuss politics he offers a nuanced left-of-centre analysis of social problems (the conversation takes place three weeks after the riots). When we talk about family — he has two young children — he talks passionately about parenthood. To put it simply, he is absorbing company.

I ask Carragher what his plans are for when he does retire from football. “I sometimes fantasise about leaving the game altogether, just to get away from my obsession, but to be honest I love the game too much,” he says. “Management would be a great option, or possibly the media. I read things in the papers or see things on TV and the analysis is sometimes not strong enough.

“An article will say that a certain player or team is underperforming, but there is not enough depth to the argument. They don’t ask why a player is below-par or don’t analyse where a team is going wrong, tactically or psychologically. That is where an ex-player with a bit of nous could add something.”

One of the most striking things about Carragher is that, although he has played at the highest level for many years, his thirst to learn is insatiable. Indeed, this interview came about because Carragher had read my book Bounce, called The Times to obtain my number and phoned out of the blue to discuss its ideas. Needless to say, the conversation was long and probing.

“To understand high-level performance, it is no good just assuming that your own personal journey is the last word on the matter,” he says. “You need to look at the science, read about the experiences of other people and look at the statistics. I try to read as much as possible to get a stronger handle on the science of performance. It doesn’t just help you as a player, it also helps you as a leader in the dressing room.”

Liverpool’s performances have improved considerably since Kenny Dalglish took over as manager in January, something that has not merely had an impact upon Carragher’s hopes of finally claiming an elusive Premier League winner’s medal, but also his sense of self-worth.

“The team has definitely grown in confidence and that makes life, and not just football, a lot brighter,” he says. “When things are going badly, as they sometimes have at Liverpool in recent years, you just want to hide behind corners. You don’t want to see the fans because you know how important it is to them. You almost feel responsible for their happiness.

“People look to players like me and Stevie [Gerrard] to sort any problems out. I love the responsibility, and I would never hide from it, but it can sometimes weigh heavily.”

As Carragher gets up to leave with a firm handshake, it suddenly occurs to me of whom he reminds me. It is a grandiose comparison, perhaps, but, given his authenticity, passion, depth and, above all, his defining belief in football as an extension of community, it is a comparison that Liverpool fans would instantly recognise. “Carra” is a latter-day Shankly. There is no greater compliment.

Highs and lows of a legend

A boyhood Evertonian, Jamie Carragher was part of Liverpool’s 1996 FA Youth Cup-winning side along with Michael Owen — Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard lined up against him for West Ham United.

• Scored on his league debut in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa the next year.

Club will make room when he hangs up boots

Analysis Tony Evans Updated 41 minutes ago

Of all the myths that surround Anfield, few have the evocative potency of the Boot Room. From the heyday of Bill Shankly until it was dismantled — metaphorically and physically — during the Graeme Souness era, the untidy cubbyhole assumed the status of a university of football. The messy storage room produced a flow of great Liverpool managers.

A new book on one of its graduates, Joe Fagan: Reluctant Champion by Andrew Fagan and Mark Platt, charts its accidental genesis. It was a place to store, and consume, beer. The football talk came as a happy consequence of conviviality.

Things have never been the same since Souness’s mid-1990s act of philosophical vandalism. The succession was broken and Roy Evans’s best efforts at restoration failed to recover the lost ethos.

Yet the last great product of the golden era has been reinstalled at Anfield and for Kenny Dalglish, legacy is as important as results — and that includes a new Boot Room. The 60-year-old wants to create a club that will function successfully ten years and more down the line.

Jamie Carragher has to be a candidate to move behind the scenes once his playing days are over. He is a student of football who would not be out of place debating with Bob Paisley, Fagan or Shankly himself.

He hoovers up football knowledge. Even at the height of his powers, Carragher asked an Italian football expert for videos of Franco Baresi. The boy from Bootle wanted to watch the great Italian growing old and see if there were any lessons that could be applied to his own career.

Two years ago, Carragher seemed to indicate where his ambitions lay. He was pictured alongside a portrait of Shankly, assuming an identical pose. With the club in turmoil and Rafael Benítez undermined from boardroom to dressing-room, the image sparked a clamour among some supporters. The phrase “The Scouse Guardiola” was bandied round. It was a dangerous exercise in wishful thinking, because — as Roy Hodgson proved — even the most experienced manager would have struggled to cope with such a dysfunctional club.

Yet the landscape has changed. Liverpool have stable owners and an iconic manager. Dalglish’s brains trust will not be fuelled by ale and suffer crates for seats. But there will be a place at Anfield where Carragher will have room to grow when he hangs up his boots.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8916584/Liverpools-veteran-defender-Jamie-Carragher-is-determined-to-enjoy-every-minute-of-the-rest-of-his-career.html

Liverpool's veteran defender Jamie Carragher is determined to enjoy every minute of the rest of his career
There is only one truly invincible opponent a footballer will ever face. Time. It is unmoved by intimidation, contemptuous of mind games, cannot be outwitted by elaborate tactical master plans and is brutally unsympathetic to those it determines to be nearing a career’s end.

Happy Birthday Jamie

Skrtel isnt the same player beside him, Id like to know what we have conceded since he has come into the team again.

I don't think I want to know any stats tbh

I'm going to bury my head in the sand

Ya I think I said that about skrtel before. He plays more lcb with Carra if that makes much difference

Jaime Carragher Daily Mail

During the week when football was coming to terms with Sir Alex Ferguson announcing his retirement, I received an unexpected letter.

My playing career was reaching its end too, and as I began reading the letter, the identity of the sender soon became apparent. He complimented me on my competitive spirit and stated his admiration for the way I had come from a working-class background to achieve things in life.

The letter was signed Sir Alex Ferguson.

It was genuinely humbling. He had so much going on in his life yet still found time to make that gesture. Of course, I wrote back to him. I thanked him for his words, congratulated him on his remarkable achievements and wished him all the best for his future.

I also told him how I’d enjoyed his first book and hoped he would pen another. If I’d known what comments he had in store for Liverpool, maybe I would have thought twice!

I’ve read with interest his observations on my Liverpool — the era from Roy Evans to Brendan Rodgers — and feel obliged to put across my own opinions. Some of the things Ferguson has said about Liverpool are right. Others are totally wrong.

Take the reference to Steven Gerrard not being ‘a top, top player’. I found that outrageous. He won a Champions League final almost single-handedly in 2005. I didn’t see anyone do that for Ferguson on the two occasions Manchester United won it, 1999 and 2008.

Ferguson’s opinion is authoritative but I’d love to know who he does class as a ‘top, top player’; he says Stevie never got a kick against Roy Keane and Paul Scholes, but I don’t remember that to be the case. What I do remember is Stevie scoring big goals against United — like the League Cup final in 2003 — and setting up winning goals for Danny Murphy at Old Trafford. I remember Stevie’s energy, desire and talent rattling United when we played them.

Look at it the other way. Put Keane or Scholes in a Liverpool shirt and let them play against Stevie with the other alongside him. I would have been surprised if they could have done more on their own than Stevie. Keane and Scholes had the advantage of being surrounded by more great players.

What makes it all the more difficult to fathom is when you think of the lavish praise he gave Stevie in 2004. At a time when Scholes, Patrick Vieira and Frank Lampard were shining, Ferguson described him as the most influential midfielder in the Premier League. This was even before his iconic moments in Istanbul and Cardiff.

Another issue that confused me surrounded Michael Owen. Why would he have become a better player by joining United when he was 12? Ferguson cites the Under 20 World Cup in Malaysia in 1997, a tournament in which I also played, and how Michael was thrust straight back into Liverpool’s first team when he returned. Ferguson gave United’s representatives at that tournament, John Curtis and Ronnie Wallwork, a month off after they returned and the implication was that Liverpool didn’t manage Michael properly.

What were we supposed to do? Not play him? Michael became European Footballer of the Year in 2001; had he been at United, Ferguson would have almost certainly let him loose. He had done that, don’t forget, with Ryan Giggs, giving him his debut as a 17-year-old.

Like Michael, Giggs suffered from hamstring injuries early in his career — was that through being overplayed? — but he was able to reinvent himself as a central midfielder. Michael couldn’t do that as he was an out-and-out striker.

Then there is the claim that Liverpool lacked imagination under Rafa Benitez. That’s just not true. There were times when Liverpool played with more flair — such as when Roy Evans was in charge — but the team I played in during 2008-09 was the club’s best since the title-winning squad of 1990. Yes, Benitez spent a lot of money, but we were trying to catch up. Ferguson was spending from a position of strength, only needing to add one or two players every summer.

We were physically and mentally strong, but we didn’t lack a sense of adventure. We scored four against Arsenal, four at Old Trafford and beat Real Madrid 5-0 over two legs in the Champions League.

Stevie and Fernando Torres were the best front partnership in Europe, and I used to walk out on to the pitch that season with the absolute belief we would win. The only thing that stopped us claiming the title that year was the fact that United had Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing.

Benitez is pragmatic and may not see the game in the same way as Ferguson or Pep Guardiola, but we were not unimaginative. How could we be with players such as Xabi Alonso, Stevie and Torres? That year we were the real deal and that’s why it hurt so much losing the title to them.

My respect for Ferguson is total. I regard him as the best manager there has been for his achievements at Manchester United and, crucially, what he accomplished with Aberdeen. But he never managed to do what Bob Paisley did with Liverpool, namely achieving total European domination. Paisley remains out on his own with three European Cups and perhaps that’s why Liverpool remain at the forefront of Ferguson’s mind.

I’ve read the book and it is excellent, as you would expect from its author and subject. Certain criticisms of Liverpool are justified, too, such as the barb about us wearing T-shirts to support Luis Suarez at Wigan and Benitez’s ill-advised ‘facts’ press conference in 2009.

But there are some of Ferguson’s opinions about Liverpool — my Liverpool — that I simply cannot accept.

P.S. A word on Brendan Rodgers’s defence of his players. Ferguson may feel aggrieved at the comments, but he may also admire Rodgers. That, after all, is precisely how he would have reacted if the same had been said about one of his own.

Our night spent in paradise at Parkhead

I fulfilled a long-standing ambition on Tuesday night when I sat in the stands to watch Celtic play a European game at Parkhead.

The experience against Ajax did not disappoint and it was one of the best atmospheres I have ever experienced. A lot used to be said about what Anfield was like on a European night but, as a player in those games, you don’t really hear the noise as you are concentrating so much.

At times on Tuesday, it felt like the ground was shaking, not least when it seemed as if 60,000 fans had started doing ‘the Poznan’. It was difficult to watch the game, as I kept looking around to take in everything.

The noise was deafening.

Leading Celtic to victory was another feather in Neil Lennon’s cap and, with every big result, it makes it inevitable that, one day, a club from the Premier League will make an offer for him.

When that happens Lennon will be faced with a big decision. The attraction of testing yourself in the Premier League is obvious but how easy would it be to walk away from experiences such as the one I was lucky enough to witness in midweek?

Those nights stay with you for ever and only a handful of clubs can come close to generating the same kind of noise and intensity that Celtic’s supporters produce when the floodlights are on and the stakes are at their highest.

MY TOP FIVE... EL CLASICO PLAYERS

Gareth Bale will get his first taste of the frenzy that is the Barcelona-Real Madrid collision on Saturday. All eyes will be on him, to see if he can live up to that huge transfer fee. These five should give him an idea of what level he will need to reach.

1 LIONEL MESSI: One day he may be regarded as the best player ever. He is in a league of his own and has tormented Madrid several times, not least when scoring a wonderful solo goal at the Bernabeu in a Champions League semi-final in 2011.

2 ZINEDINE ZIDANE: An extraordinary midfielder capable of producing the most outrageous skill. A Real Madrid giant, his legacy at the Bernabeu was defined the night he scored that glorious volley at Hampden Park to win the Champions League in 2002.

3 CRISTIANO RONALDO: Has moved up to another level since leaving the Premier League and you can see how much he relishes these games. Has tormented Barcelona at times, not least when scoring the winner in the 2011 Copa del Rey final.

4 MICHAEL LAUDRUP: It takes something special to keep Romario, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho out of this top five but Laudrup does it. He is the only man to play for both Barcelona and Real Madrid in El Clasico and taste a 5-0 victory for each side.

5 RAUL: Real Madrid’s all-time leading scorer, 15 of whose 323 goals came against Barcelona. I played against him in the Champions League in 2009, a competition he won three times, and he was a class act, on and off the pitch. One of the greatest strikers in the modern era.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/jamie-carraghers-liverpool-city-centre-6250281

Carra's restaurants gone bust

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Two city centre restaurants owned by Liverpool FC legend Jamie Carragher have gone bust.

The Cafe Sports England business, which included a restaurant in Stanley Street and cocktail bar Moments in Thomas Steers Way in Liverpool One, had owed almost £1.2m.

Most of the debts were owed to the Flanagan Group, parent company of City Life Projects which owned the restaurants with Carragher.

Liquidator Robert Rutherford, of Parkin S Booth, confirmed to the ECHO that the company went into voluntary liquidation on October 17.

Managing director of the Flanagan Group Paul Flanagan said the firm had done everything it could to try and save the restaurants.

He said: “The main creditor was the Flanagan Group, we put a lot into the business. All our staff were paid and all our suppliers are still trading with us.

“Unfortunately it didn’t work.

“It’s horrible. We did everything we could.”

City Life Projects still owns other city centre venues including the Newz bar and Sir Thomas Hotel.

Mr Flanagan blamed Cafe Sport England’s problems on the opening of the Bierkeller in Liverpool One, above the branch originally known as Cafe Sports Express, which he said provided too much competition.

The restaurant was rebranded as cocktail bar Moments in July but by that time Mr Flanagan said the debts were already mounting. Documents show the list of creditors included Carragher, who was owed £102,000, as well as City Life Projects Ltd who were owed £141,000.

The company also owed more than £300,000 on rent of the Stanley Street building to the Flanagan Group as well as almost £400,000 to Flanagan Building and Maintenance.

Today Carragher said he did not want to comment.

Jamie Carragher - A Liverpool Life Part 1

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