Carragher for England

[Exiled_red]

I suspect Carragher lost all respect for McLaren over the ridiculous way he treated him. Quite right too, it was disgraceful.

Now he realises his career is soon going to be over, Terry and Ferdinand are anything but automatic first choices and he'd have a good chance of playing in a team with a realistic chance of winning.

I'm not sure he'll go for it but good luck to him if he does, even though it might not be ideal from our point of view.

N.B. I don't think England will win it. But it's not impossible.

[Broner]

This might sound a bit cuntish but i'll be disappointed in Carra if he decides he wants to return to International football.


Look at Scholes for example, many a time Sven and the media were putting pressure on him to come out of International retirement but he turned them down...every time.

Thought Liverpool was his number 1 priority? Now all of a sudden he's happy to play second fiddle to Rio and Terry who will no doubt be first choice in the World Cup.

[Vermilion]

This might sound a bit cuntish but i'll be disappointed in Carra if he decides he wants to return to International football.


Look at Scholes for example, many a time Sven and the media were putting pressure on him to come out of International retirement but he turned them down...every time.

Thought Liverpool was his number 1 priority? Now all of a sudden he's happy to play second fiddle to Rio and Terry who will no doubt be first choice in the World Cup.

In fairness to Carra, he said at the time 'if there's a problem, and england really need me...i'll be there'. or something like.

[dww]

I think there is a huge difference in the sense that Scholes had clearly been given a crack at international level and still had a stable successful club to go back to for the end of hid career. Carragher was dicked about previously at international level and may feel that now in the twilight of his career he has a chance to show his worth and given the state of the club at the minute we may not be able to guarantee the level of football he was supposed to be saving himself to play.

Added to that after a season of such depressing nature buggering off to play with a different group would seem as likely to reinvigorate him as it is to drain him. We have the numbers of CBs to get through the Europa qualifiers so he can have a bit of a preseason rest there.

If he goes I wouldn't hold it against him at all.

[5europeancups]

Jesus. I like Carra but this makes him look a bit of a tool if you ask me. It's not as if he's going to be first choice at the World Cup is it?! Back up at full back and back up at centre back - exactly the position he was in when he quit FFS!

He'll feel more of a tool if he misses out on a world Cup adventure and possibly medal just because of his principles.

[pezzzer]

did u hear that cunt coolymore slating him yesterday, saying he was a disgrace for turning his back on england and now isnt fit to wear the shirt.
****in hate him

[5europeancups]

did u hear that cunt coolymore slating him yesterday, saying he was a disgrace for turning his back on england and now isnt fit to wear the shirt.
****in hate him

I wouldnt take anything too seriously that comes out of Collymore's mouth.

[Vermilion]

I wouldnt take anything too seriously that comes out of Collymore's mouth.

The mans a lunatic, you'd think listening to him today that he was the perfect pro during his career. Hypocrite.

[Broner]

Jamie Carragher can't be Ledley King so why is he back for more of the same?Last updated at 1:21 AM on 10th May 2010



There is one aspect of Jamie Carragher’s return to the England squad that does not make sense. What has changed? If he goes to South Africa it will in all likelihood be as the fourth-choice centre half and reserve right back, pretty much the career opportunity that proved so easy to resist when Steve McClaren was manager.

Yes, there is now the lure of the World Cup finals rather than a failing European Championship qualification campaign, yet Carragher was involved in four World Cup matches in Germany in 2006, including two starts, so is not without the experience. Perhaps his club season contains the answer.

Carragher made it plain that he derived his greatest enjoyment from playing for Liverpool, yet this season can hardly have been fulfilling. He may have reviewed the sorry mess of a scrap for a Europa League place combined with disappointments and humiliations in various cups at home and across Europe, and concluded that going to a World Cup with England remains his best chance of experiencing an adrenaline rush.
Something must have altered about the international game for Carragher because, on the face of it, nothing has.

The last of his appearances for England was on June 1, 2007, against Brazil at Wembley, the final straw being that Ledley King was preferred alongside John Terry at centre half. That night Carragher was relegated, once again, to right back

Much is made of his disparaging comments about international football in his autobiography, never caring for England as he did for Liverpool, but the bottom line was that it was not so much that he gave up on England, but that England gave up on him. In the next game, in Estonia five days later, King kept his place and Wes Brown was selected at right back. Carragher decided enough was enough.

He did not enjoy playing reserve to Terry and Rio Ferdinand, or filling in at full back as was often required — his final competitive start was against Israel in Tel Aviv in that position — but heunderstood the pecking order.

It was only when King returned from another extended injury absence and instantly made two starts that Carragher realised he was not just the understudy but the understudy’s understudy and his disillusionment was overwhelming.

The irony is that, due to injuries, Carragher would have played the majority of games in the rest of the campaign. He would have started ahead of Sol Campbell or Joleon Lescott against Estonia, Russia away and Croatia.
McClaren, in crisis by the end with his top three central defenders missing for the vital final game at Wembley, tried to persuade Carragher to reconsider his retirement but, still smarting and no doubt relishing the payback, the player refused.

Fabio Capello, the current England manager, has no awkward history and that makes it easier for Carragher to come to England’s aid this summer but, personal relationships aside, why is it different now? The first-choice central defenders remain Terry and Ferdinand, King is suffering respite from injury and is pick number three, while having placed Glen Johnson among the best full backs in the world, Capello surely regards him as first choice.

So where is Carragher? Exactly at the point where he made his excuses and left: fourth centre half, second right back. Maybe he thinks the physical fragility of those up the order increases his hope of involvement. Perhaps Capello has privately indicated that there are matches in which Johnson’s place would be vulnerable to a no-nonsense defender, with an astute reading of the game.

Then again, he could be lightly used or not needed in South Africa and must continue to wonder why, to England managers, one game played by King this season seems to be worth almost three of his.

There is one unexplored option which is that Capello, like many others, is not entirely convinced by the form of England’s first-choice central defenders and has hinted to Carragher that the four will begin on level terms when the World Cup squad gathers. It may just be sweet talk but whatever logic Capello’s people are using, it looks to have worked.

Selecting Carragher will be a gamble, though. Not because he lacks the talent — if he had been willing to remain an international footballer, Lescott and Matthew Upson would still be club footballers — but because there is an uneasy past and England supporters have no less pride than those of Liverpool.

They will be divided on his selection after his casual dismissal of England’s importance, that is for sure. There may also be resentment that he has returned for the best of it, without being troubled by the hard yards, trips to places like Minsk and Zagreb.

On a practical level it could be argued that the returning player is not of the same calibre as the one who retired, either.
Carragher in 2007 was faster and tidier than he has been this season. Liverpool’s defenders have missed Xabi Alonso as an outlet and, at 32, Carragher is not getting quicker. He remains, however, in a different class to the player Capello would have relied on, Upson, who has endured a dreadful season with West Ham.

Carragher has also demonstrated on any number of occasions that there are few defenders better in a backs-to-the-wall match against a strong attacking team. He may come into his own when faced with Brazil or Spain, heroically defiant in a way only Terry at his best can be.

The nagging doubt is that Liverpool’s resilience in Europe under Rafael Benitez was once built on Carragher’s substance while, this season, they have exited two competitions against inferior opposition and kept four clean sheets in 14 matches, two against Debrecen of Hungary. This has not been the Liverpool, or Carragher, of old.

What his selection proves beyond doubt is that Capello is a pragmatist. Now the World Cup is a month away, slowly his list of pre-conditions on player selection is dwindling.

He said he wanted fit, committed players, in action regularly for their clubs. One by one, these caveats disappear. If a player is good, like Ferdinand or King, he can be flexible over sustained fitness; if a player gets the best out of Wayne Rooney, like Emile Heskey, he may be able to overlook his absence from the first team; and if a player once spoke dispassionately of England, as Carragher did, he can agree this is water under the bridge.

In the vernacular of the moment, it is clear Capello is now willing to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to get his coalition World Cup squad honed before Tuesday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1275859/Martin-Samuel-Jamie-Carragher-Ledley-King-same.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0nU0cYlzo

[DannyMan2006]

Carraghers last chance of playing in a major international tournament. He has said in the past he would return if needed in an emergency, well this is the time. I think he would be crazy to turn this opportunity down. It's not like he has Champions League football to save himself for.

[Exiled_red]

did u hear that cunt coolymore slating him yesterday, saying he was a disgrace for turning his back on england and now isnt fit to wear the shirt.
****in hate him

I wouldnt take anything too seriously that comes out of Collymore's mouth.

Collymore isn't one to talk about anything really, given his track record.

[Kenneth]

To be fair, he's not really good enough to play in a world cup now. A fit King is more suited to International Football than Carra.

[DannyMan2006]

To be fair, he's not really good enough to play in a world cup now. A fit King is more suited to International Football than Carra.

He is good enough. He hardly ever puts a foot wrong. With backs to the wall I'd rather have Carra in than someone like Dawson or Upson. No question that a fit Terry/Rio/King should be ahead, but he's 4th choice in my book and hardly ever gets injured. Can also play RB and even LB in emergencies.

[dww]

To be fair, he's not really good enough to play in a world cup now. A fit King is more suited to International Football than Carra.

I'm not so sure that a fit King exists. Certainly without training and a regular partner you would think it would be hard to integrate into a different way of playing.

I'd think if anything international football would suit Carragher quite well. The problem would be that he doesn't really complement Terry who would presumably be first choice. I wonder if he is in fact being though of as an alternative to Brown for the role of reserve right back with the hope he could also cover at CB - allowing Capello to also select a player like King who might be a gamble at centreback.

[Kenneth]

I'm not so sure that a fit King exists. Certainly without training and a regular partner you would think it would be hard to integrate into a different way of playing.

I'd think if anything international football would suit Carragher quite well. The problem would be that he doesn't really complement Terry who would presumably be first choice. I wonder if he is in fact being though of as an alternative to Brown for the role of reserve right back with the hope he could also cover at CB - allowing Capello to also select a player like King who might be a gamble at centreback.

To date, I don't think Carragher has shown himself particularly well suilted to playing for England, even with a variety of partners. Brown is probably a better choice as a utility defender anyway.