Jamie Carragher reveals ex-Liverpool star ‘confronted’ him after pundit insisted Reds ‘needed to sell’
Jamie Carragher revealed he had a dressing room confrontation with Daniel Sturridge, having said Liverpool needed to sell the striker.
The former Liverpool defender retired in 2013 but quickly joined the Sky punditry team, a role that required him to be critical about the club he played 737 times for.
One of those incidents came early in his punditry career when Sturridge was at Liverpool, playing under Jurgen Klopp, and Carragher suggested he needed to be moved on.
The former defender then found himself back in the Liverpool dressing room and confronted by an angry Sturridge.
“It was Daniel Sturridge – he was still playing at the end with Jurgen Klopp,” Carragher said on the Overlap when asked if he had any run-ins with players after comments he made. “You wouldn’t believe this, but when I stopped playing for a couple of years, Liverpool asked me and Steven Gerrard to go on an end-of-season game in Australia.
“Liverpool couldn’t sell out the tickets to fill out this stadium in Australia, so they asked me, Stevie, and Steve McManaman to play with the team. I’d said that they’d needed to sell Daniel Sturridge, and he confronted me in the dressing room when we got over there.
“And I thought, ‘Fair play, good on you.’ There is nothing worse than someone backing down, so I wasn’t going to. Sometimes, if I was a player with a journalist, I might say something and they’d backdown and say sorry, but no, just front it.”
Sturridge eventually left Liverpool in 2018, first on loan to West Brom before moving to Turkish side Trabzonspor.
The striker retired in 2022 and has gone on to join Carragher behind the Sky Sports desk, where the two have frequently clashed over their opinions.
A notable flash point came in January when the two discussed Trent Alexander-Arnold’s suspected move to Real Madrid in the summer with Sturridge suggesting Carragher is overly harsh in his criticism.
“When I am talking about Trent, I am disappointed about the Real Madrid stuff coming out, and that being the focus ahead of a big game [against Manchester United] because the most important thing is Liverpool winning the Premier League,” Carragher, a one-club man with the Anfield side, said.
Sturridge then cut in to say: “Before Madrid, you had a problem with the situation as well, I am saying.”
To which Carrgher said “Daniel, tell me what the problem was because that was just waffle.”
Sturridge then asked: “This is a simple question I have for you. Are you saying you are happy with Trent leaving for free, or do you want money for him? Which one is it?
“You can’t sit on the fence. You either want him to stay and sign a contract, or you want him to leave now, but you can’t have it both ways – that’s football.
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“I am a fan of Liverpool, and I love Trent Alexander-Arnold.”
In reply, Carragher said: “When did I say I wanted him to be sold now for money, and when did I say I was unhappy with him going for free? I have never, ever said I had a problem with him going for free.
“I’ve constantly defended him to other Liverpool fans and on this show, that the lad came for nothing, and if he leaves for nothing, there should be no criticism for that.
“In terms of selling him right now, I am disappointed because I know how transfers work, how football works – he will have known Real Madrid were putting a bid in.
“Real Madrid can do what they want. My problem is, Liverpool are going for a league title – it’s January, and he will have known that would kick up a fuss ahead of a big game.”
