Jamie Carragher, Liverpool defender-turned-pundit, recalls how an opportunity to shadow manager Brendan Rodgers fell through back in 2012.
“To be honest, I would never be one to say I’d love to be back at Liverpool as if I’m begging for a job or anything like that,” Carragher told the Liverpool Echo.
“I told Liverpool I was leaving a year before I left, and there was nothing then. That’s not a criticism, because for me to have a job someone has to lose theirs – you can’t just create roles for people.
“I don’t know if you know this story, but when Kenny was the manager and I was in and out the team, that summer I’d asked could I shadow him in pre-season.
“That would be in terms of just going into the meetings with the staff. I wasn’t playing every week, but how would he set up a training session, how would he organise it? That sort of thing.
“He said yes, but then he was gone. I met Brendan, and he wanted me on his staff. I thought ‘brilliant’.
“But for whatever reason, he changed his mind. He brought Mike Marsh in from the Academy, which is not a problem. But I always think how would that have worked for me going forward, and would that have got me the bug in terms of coaching?”
He doesn’t speculate as to why Rodgers turned back on their agreement, but he also seems to harbor no ill will for his former manager. Post-football life seems to be working out pretty well for Carra at the moment, so it appears that this is just a story of one of life’s could-have-beens.
Many fans assumed that Carragher would go into coaching after his football career ended, so it was surprising when he took a job as a pundit instead. This anecdote helps to make sense of that decision in retrospect.
“To be honest, I would never be one to say I’d love to be back at Liverpool as if I’m begging for a job or anything like that,” Carragher told the Liverpool Echo.
“I told Liverpool I was leaving a year before I left, and there was nothing then. That’s not a criticism, because for me to have a job someone has to lose theirs – you can’t just create roles for people.
“I don’t know if you know this story, but when Kenny was the manager and I was in and out the team, that summer I’d asked could I shadow him in pre-season.
“That would be in terms of just going into the meetings with the staff. I wasn’t playing every week, but how would he set up a training session, how would he organise it? That sort of thing.
“He said yes, but then he was gone. I met Brendan, and he wanted me on his staff. I thought ‘brilliant’.
“But for whatever reason, he changed his mind. He brought Mike Marsh in from the Academy, which is not a problem. But I always think how would that have worked for me going forward, and would that have got me the bug in terms of coaching?”
He doesn’t speculate as to why Rodgers turned back on their agreement, but he also seems to harbor no ill will for his former manager. Post-football life seems to be working out pretty well for Carra at the moment, so it appears that this is just a story of one of life’s could-have-beens.
Many fans assumed that Carragher would go into coaching after his football career ended, so it was surprising when he took a job as a pundit instead. This anecdote helps to make sense of that decision in retrospect.
