I know I’m inviting the wrath of a few people here, but I was disgusted with Jamie Carragher’s (and to a lesser extent Steven Gerrard’s) comments last week in support of Gerard Houllier. Carragher said that he was fully in support of Gerard Houllier as Houllier was the reason why he had “6 medals on my mantlepiece”. If I remember correctly those six medals are made up of two league cups, an FA Cup, a UEFA cup, a European Supercup and a Charity Shield.
The Charity Shield and the Supercup are only exhibition matches and we beat a Bayern team in the 2001 final who sent out a reserve side against us.
I’m in favour of winning these matches if we are in them, but I wouldn’t exactly spend my time at home sitting by the fire clapping myself on the back and polishing my Charity Shield medal.
The two League Cup medals are ok, but hardly the crowning achievement of any top footballer’s career.
The FA Cup medal and the UEFA cup medal are relatively prestigious, but then again neither competition are as important as they were back in the 1970s, certainly not since the advent of the Champions League.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not completely dismssing those cup wins. They were a remarkable achievement given the time. However, most people here will probably agree with me when I say that back in the late spring of 2001 I honestly thought that they were merely signposts on the way to greater success, meaning the league championship and prosperity in the Champions League. Neither have materialised.
I am disgusted with Carragher as his comments indicate that he is happy with his lot as a player, that he is happy with his “6 medals”. I know that he says he wants to win the league with the club, but every time he talks to the press he harps back to his six Mickey Mouse medals and how great Houllier is.
I’m a big fan of Roy Keane in that he is not prepared to settle for anything other than the Premiership and the Champions League, and if a season passes where Man UTD don’t achieve either he is massively disappointed. When Keane joined Man UTD they were a joke in Europe but it was the likes of Keane’s bloody-mindedness and ambition that dragged that club by its bootlaces up into the upper echelons of European football.
I like Carragher but sometimes I ask myself that if he, a scouser, is happy with his lot, then what hope Le Tallec, Pongolle, Smicer, Cheyrou, Diouff, Diao etc?
Steven Gerrard also spoke about his six medals, but at least Gerrard speaks of not being happy with being so far off the leaders, and you can see that this hurts Gerrard. Gerrard is happy with his medals but compared to Carragher, you get the feeling that he desperately wants more and wouldn’t be happy with his career if all he had to show for it was a few league cup and charity shield medals.
We need more ambition from the players. Houllier gets a lot of flak, but the players also need to ***** uo their ears. I simply don’t see the hunger in Liverpool, and I won’t bore people by taking about Shankly, Dalglish or Ian Rush. Even if you compare this side to that of Houllier’s dogs of war side of 2001 and 2002 there is a serious lack of ambition and desire.