Carragher’s arrogant Liverpool bias reaches laughable new heights – ‘Every player I speak to…’

Jamie Carragher is often unfairly branded a mere Liverpool mouthpiece. He branded Mohamed Salah “disgraceful” this season, he’s questioned the character of the Liverpool team as a whole, hit out at the fans over the “disrespect” of Arne Slot and claimed their victory over Nottingham Forest in February was one of the “biggest robberies”.

But a laughable comment on the Stick to Football podcast this week exposed his ludicrous This Means More bias.

A discussion was being held over Salah’s future after the Liverpool hero announced last month that he would be leaving the club after winning six major trophies at Anfield, including two Premier League titles and the Champions League, scoring 255 goals in 435 appearances for the Reds.

Steven Gerrard batted away Gary Neville’s “ridiculous” suggestion that the Egyptian might be tempted by either Chelsea or Arsenal, as if they would be tempted by him in any case. And amid widespread reports of him landing in either the Saudi Pro League or MLS, Carragher said he “could see Milan or Inter” as Salah “thinks he’s still one of the best players in the world”. Nothing amiss there.

But then came a glorious example of a common prejudice held by what feels like a majority of Liverpool fans and stakeholders as Carragher claimed there’s no life for a footballer beyond his former club.

“Almost every player I speak to who left Liverpool, so Jordan [Henderson]’s probably one. Obviously you’ve [Steven Gerrard] mentioned you’d love to have played with Klopp, speaking to Robbie Fowler and they’re all players, they’re used to playing and everybody always says the same thing – they wish they’d have stayed.

“I’ve never played for another club so I can’t understand probably what it must be and it may be a drop from one of the real biggest clubs in the country to a level down. It’s just interesting that everybody always says the same thing.”

What’s really “interesting” is the players he’s spoken to.

Gerrard  is arguably the greatest Liverpool player of all time who came up through the academy and left the club in his mid-thirties.

Henderson’s broken moral compass took him to Saudi Arabia, a move which tarnished his reputation significantly, after over a decade at Liverpool, during which time he captained the club to the Champions League and Premier League title.

And Robbie Fowler, who was adored by the fans of his boyhood club, playing far more games for them than any of the other seven clubs he went on to represent.

Of course those three players wish they had stayed, because Carragher spoke to three players who enjoyed the best moments of their careers at Anfield.

We wonder if he’s had the opportunity to speak to Xabi Alonso, who left Liverpool to win three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich and the Champion League with Real Madrid.

Has he ever asked Luis Suarez if he regrets leaving Anfield to form one of the greatest forward lines in history alongside Lionel Messi and Neymar?

No doubt Raheem Sterling is kicking himself after moving to Manchester City and winning ten major trophies. If only Luis Diaz had stayed in the summer and wasn’t currently enduring such a harrowing time at Bayern with his 40 goal contributions in 38 games.

Footballers regret leaving Liverpool just as other footballers regret leaving other football clubs. This Means More to the players who enjoyed their time at Anfield. To those that didn’t it won’t mean much at all.