Jamie Carragher: Not the Most Committed England International, But Wish He Was On the Plane This Week

Jamie Carragher’s recent autobiography (cunningly titled: Carra: My Biography, by Jamie Carragher) contains some juicy tidbits. Not least of which is his frank honesty about playing for England. And I quote:

“Did I care we’d gone out of the tournament? Of course I did. Passionately,” writes Carragher in his forthcoming autobiography.

“I’ve never given less than 100% in any game.

“Despite this, whenever I returned home from disappointing England experiences one unshakeable, overriding thought pushed itself to the forefront of my mind, no matter how much the rest of the nation mourned.

“‘At least it wasn’t Liverpool,’ I’d repeat to myself, over and over.

“The text messages of consolation I received on the coach included one from Kenny Dalglish.

“‘I would rather miss for England than LFC,’ I wrote back.

“I confess: defeats wearing an England shirt never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club. I wasn’t caring or indifferent, I simply didn’t put England’s fortunes at the top of my priority list.

“Losing felt like a disappointment rather than a calamity. I was never in love with playing for England in the first place. By the time I stopped I felt a huge weight lifting.”

My guess is that England fans will be outraged, while Liverpool fans will understand. It’s not a huge surprise given Carra’s early England retirement, and in many many ways you have to take your hat off to the guy’s honesty.

And from what I could gather listening to a recent Talksport phone-in, Scousers in general care about the city of Liverpool first, and the country of England second. And that’s obviously mirrored in football allegiances.

I’ve no problem with that, it’s just the way it is. But with Lescott and Upson as England’s backup centre-backs this week, and Rio Ferdinand worryingly injured, we could definitely have used Carragher in Croatia.