Disillusioned by a Football Deity: Liverpool star Jamie Carragher reflects on the England coach who fell short of expectations

Carragher was a loyal one-club man, making over 700 appearances for his beloved club after starting his career in the academy. One of his proudest moments was lifting the Champions League trophy, just one of his 11 major honours during his time at the club.

However, despite his iconic status at arguably the country's biggest club, Carragher frequently struggled to tie down a place in the national team set-up, often finding himself watching the likes of Sol Campbell, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand from the sidelines.

38 international caps is undoubtedly nothing to frown at, although a player of Carragher's ability and status could understandably feel unlucky to not push the century mark like his Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard.

The defender missed the 2002 World Cup due to injury, although returned for both Euro 2004 and the 2006 World Cup in Germany before suffering a three-year absence from the squad. With Liverpool firmly on the decline as a club in 2010, slumping to seventh in the Premier League, Carragher earned himself a surprise recall to the national team for the 2010 World Cup under new manager Fabio Capello.

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Speaking on SkyBet's speaking on Stick to Football, Carragher explained the circumstances surrounding his return.

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“When [Fabio] Capello first came in, he was always constantly on to Stevie [Gerrard] because the number of centre-backs wasn’t sorted. Stevie was always raving about him. Some of the players just thought, “What the f*** is he doing here?” 

"Ledley King was in the tournament and someone else was injured on the last game of the weekend, so they asked me, but Liverpool hadn’t qualified for the Champions League. I just thought, ‘My age, would we get into the Champions League? F*** it, I’ll go play in the World Cup’. I did play a couple of games in the World Cup. For me, it wasn’t to go back and play for England. It was to go and play for Capello and the whole Milan thing. 

"Capello for me was like a God. But I was disappointed because I was used to Rafa [Benitez’s] structure. He was the [Jose] Mourinho before Mourinho, wasn’t he? Everywhere he went he won and got the job done.”

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