21 hours Ago By [email protected] (Ben Crawford)
Jamie Carragher nearly pushed forward his retirement to midway through his final Liverpool season – before Brendan Rodgers handed him a fairytale farewell. The stalwart centre-half-turned-pundit played nearly 750 times for the Reds , ranking second on their all-time list ahead of Steven Gerrard . He announced that the 2012/13 season would be his last at the age of 35, having arrived at Anfield at the age of nine.
However, as his final days in red lingered , the defender admitted that he began to feel embarrassed at no longer being in the starting XI on Merseyside and even had thoughts about calling it quits earlier than he originally planned. Yet, current Celtic boss Rodgers gave the eventual Sky Sports and CBS Sports pundit the perfect send-off by integrating him back into the first team. And he played this final match at home against QPR in March 2013, substituted in the 87th minute to a standing ovation from everyone attending.
"The start of every season, my target was to play 50 games," Carragher revealed, speaking on Stick to Football , brought to you by Sky Bet . "So, from 2000 – that decade of 10 years – I played over 50 games and nine seasons and the only one season when I didn’t was when I broke my leg. "I played every three days, that was my mentality and if I haven’t of done that, in my mid-20s, I would have left.
There was no way I could have accepted being sub, or building up to a game and you’re not involved. "It got to a stage at the end where I thought I’m not going to leave Liverpool at the age of 34, I want to be a one-club man, I’ll put up with this for 18 months." Carragher had enjoyed nearly 17 successful years at Anfield, being named vice-captain for 10 of them, but admitted that he felt conflicted when it became apparent that he was becoming surplus to requirements.
"But, I was embarrassed," Carragher continued. "The worst bit was the day after a game, we might train, like the subs and a few of the kids. There’s nothing wrong with that because players come down and you’re passing experience.
"You’ll see the other lads warming down and stretching. You know what it’s like, a manager and staff are all over the first team players, and rightly so, and you’re just thinking, ‘what am I doing?’ "I nearly finished halfway through a season with Brendan Rodgers, and he said, ‘no, just stick with it’ and he ended up putting me back in the team. I played the last 10 or 12 games of the season – it was a brilliant way to finish.
"Probably most players at my age finish [their careers] sat in the stands – I was playing every week for Liverpool. We had a great team, we finished seventh, but I did well so I didn’t embarrass myself, so people said, ‘why don’t you carry on?’ I said, ‘this is the best time to go, I’m playing, not embarrassing myself, get out now’." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content.
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