Latest News update About Carragher Testimonial Match: Speaking to fans before, during and after the West Brom game last Sunday, I was amazed at the amount of people who weren’t planning on going to Jamie Carragher’s testimonial match tomorrow. ‘Too far to travel’ or ‘can’t really afford it’ were the common answers when I asked why, but a few just said ‘I can’t be bothered’, which is quite shocking.
Can’t be bothered? For Jamie Carragher? When has he not been bothered for you as a Liverpool supporter? Not once, never. Carragher is the greatest professional Liverpool have had in the Premier League years. A player who started as a goal (singular) scoring midfielder and ended up as an ultra consistent centre half (via right and left back) who will be remembered and won’t look out of place, in the same bracket as Yeats, Smith, Hughes Thompson and Hansen.
A player that knows exactly what it means to play for Liverpool Football Club, Carragher cannot believe his luck at pulling on the red shirt week after week. Not because he isn’t good enough to wear it, but because he knows how lucky he is to be good enough to wear it. You hear all the time how much of an honour it is for a player to be playing for a club and although all these players mean well and are pretty pleased with themselves, only a few know the true honour of what it is all about.
Growing up as a staunch Evertonian, meant Carragher, like most of their fans, had an obsession with Liverpool Football Club. After admitting in his autobiography that if he hadn’t have made it at Liverpool, he would have grown up to be a particularly bitter blue, the man whose blood now definitely runs red got the perfect chance and switched allegiance naturally.
Everton are a great club and when a young Carragher was growing up, they were a great team, but he knew that deep down, everything that was good about the Goodison Park side was trumped by the club the other end of Stanley Park. Just like Robbie Fowler before him, the change from blue to red, seemed to make him appreciate and embrace his new colour even more.
Which is why he is already, without question, a true Liverpool legend and why he will probably finish only behind Ian Callaghan in the list of all time appearences for Liverpool. Never has he hidden or shirked responsibility despite a career of obstacles. A player that was labelled as utility who played in positions that seemed to be in areas that everyone thought should be strengthened. A player who has scored more own goals than goals for – a brace of them at the Kop end versus Man United, an opener in the FA Cup Final for West Ham and a total of three against Tottenham Hotspur.
But also a player, as hard as it is to believe now, who wasn’t always a fans favourite. I once had a disagreement with a fan who argued that Djimi Traore would be a better alternative to Carragher at left back after a defeat at Newcastle. That was the first time the number 23 had played there and he made that position his own – Liverpool won a treble.
Every summer potential replacements would arrive, challenge and fail in ousting Carragher from the starting eleven, only a broken leg at Blackburn put him out of the team, and he reluctantly walked off. It wasn’t until a new manager came in that he was the first name on the sheet rather than the man filling the gaps.
Built around by Benitez, immortalised by Istanbul, season 2004/2005 put Carragher firmly on the world map. Pick any of Liverpool’s outstanding European displays over the past five years and you will more than likely be shown an equally brilliant Jamie Carragher performance. If there was a last gasp header, interception or block it was a fair bet who’d be putting their body on the line for the cause. A great leader and organiser who reads the game exceptionally, the club’s other captain has firmly cemented himself in the history books and is not finished yet.
Still Liverpool’s best defender, his testimonial will be a great occasion for all involved and it is so fitting that it’s against Everton. All proceeds will go to helping Merseyside as a whole and it would be a shame if there are empty seats around Anfield, as tickets are still on sale. Even if seeing the likes of Dudek, Finnan, Redknapp, Murphy, Luis Garcia, Heskey and dare I say Owen pull on a Liverpool shirt once more, isn’t enough to make all Liverpool fans turn up, the fact that it is Jamie Carragher’s tetimonial game should be enough on its own. Because when has he never turned up for them? Exactly
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