Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has opened up about when and why he decided to hang up his boots on an illustrious career with Liverpool. He revealed that a young Romelu Lukaku, who was plying his trade at Everton when Carragher was at Liverpool, made the defender come to terms with reality and take a decision on his retirement. Ouch!
As quoted by LiverpoolKop, Carragher said:
“I’ve still got visions of [Lukaku] coming on as a sub for Liverpool away at West Brom three or four years ago. I tried to steal a ball from him and he rolled me and ran away. He was one of the reasons why I retired. Seeing players of that ability and strength, I thought it was time for me to finish.”
A month ago, Gerrard, who was captain at the time Carragher called it a day, revealed that he wished the Kop legend had played a bit longer.
In a Sky Sports program celebrating Carragher’s career, Gerrard said:
“I think I was probably aware a couple of months before he made the decision. Everyone know we were very close at the time. I respected the decision and knew why he wanted to do it and stuff. But there was a part of me that wanted to shake him a bit and say ‘you can give us one more year’ I think it maybe was a year too early. Sometimes it’s better to go when people want a bit more rather than outstay your welcome and drag it out.”
Gerrard is right. Liverpool might have probably won the Premier League with a core team of Gerrard, Carragher, Suarez, and Sturridge. The year after his retirement, The Reds came within two points of winning the league. It is possible that with Carra at the back, Liverpool wouldn’t have conceded 50 league goals that season.
In the 4 years prior to Carragher’s retirement, Liverpool conceded an average of 41 league goals per season. Since 2013, that’s risen to an average of 51 per season, and conceding 5-10 fewer goals in 2013-14 would’ve been the difference between finishing 2nd and winning the league.
In his 17 years at the club, he finished with the second highest number of appearances for Liverpool in their illustrious history, only behind Ian Callaghan. He had made 737 appearances and has never played for any club other than Liverpool.
Unfortunately, Carragher has never won the league title with Liverpool and that is the only honour that the player has not managed to win in his 17 years with Liverpool.
