Jamie Carragher has revealed that an England defeat "never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club."

The Liverpool defender retired from international football in July last year after complaining he was constantly being overlooked as a central defender for the national team.

The 30-year-old won 34 caps, the last of which saw him miss a penalty as England went out of the 2006 World Cup against Portugal in a shootout.

However, Carragher has now revealed: "I would rather miss for England than LFC."

Carragher wrote in 'Carra, My Autobiography', serialised in the Daily Mirror: "Representing your country is the ultimate honour, especially in the World Cup. Not to me.

"Did I care we'd gone out of the tournament? Of course I did. Passionately.

"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.

"By the time I stopped I felt a huge weight lifting."

 

That is scandalous in my opinion. With Gerrard's current actions screaming pretty much the same sentiment, it is no wonder why the England football team is as pathetic as it is. We find it all too easy to blame the management...but when you read things like this, what chance does any manager have?

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Bad players get lucky...Good players get unlucky. Im good...and often wish I wasn't.

The Liverpool defender retired from international football in July last year

no great loss really, is it? 

It was at the time....funny how he didnt come out with his revelations about not being in love with England then. All he whined on about was being overlooked for the National team.

Whole point is that if this sentiment that this scally has is shared by other England players, how do we ever expect them to succeed at international level? Nothing to do with the fact that Carragher isnt gonna play for England anymore...

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Bad players get lucky...Good players get unlucky. Im good...and often wish I wasn't.

You've been reading too many tabloid newspapers. I think it's refreshing that someone is being completely honest. Carragher is not saying that he didn't care or that he occasionaly only gave 99% for England to save himself for a big Liverpool game, he's just saying that for him playing for Liverpool means more than playing for England. He still gave his all during England games.

I can't remember watching Carragher play for England and thinking he's not trying. Obviously players have bad games sometimes but that does not mean they are not trying.

When I play 5-aside, I always give my all and keep running pretty much til I collapse but the actual game doesn't mean anything, it's just a kick around. If this same 5-aside game had a prize of tickets to the world cup final I couldn't try any harder, but obviously in my heart the game takes on much greater significance.

Likewise when I played in a 11 aside league, some games we played really well and everything clicked and other times we played poorly. When we played poorly, it didn't necessarily mean we weren't trying.

 I agree that sometimes players put on an England shirt and don't give 100%, but I don't agree with twisting someones comments to create a headline.

 It's nice to see a footballer being honest and not saying the same old pc crap that they get coached to say which you see in all the post match interviews on MOTD. But this is exactly why they say the pc crap because tabloids aren't able to turn it against them to try and sensationalise things.

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Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

LOL...these are taken from his own autobiography....they may well have been sensationalized and paraphrased by the red tops to promote his toilet material a bit more, but what kind of context can you give that gives a different meaning to the quote "i never fell in love playing for England"?

 Carragher was a decent player who was pretty unfortunate to be vying for places with, in my opinion, better players in the same position for the National team. Terry, Ferdinand, Campbell, Woodgate, Ledley King were all going for the same places and basically Carragher chucked his dummy out because other (better) players continually (rightly) got chosen ahead of him.

If the red top has taken these quotes from his book out of context, im sure we will see details of a lawsuit or a public apology, but having heard Carragher live on TalkSport when Adrian Durham publicly ridiculed him for retiring because of basically his own mardyness, these quotes come as no surprise to me whatsoever.

Couple this with Gerrard having an op which will keep him out of the vital WC qualifying game away at Croatia (not having it before to ensure he could play or have it after as he seemed to be fine playing for Liverpool in their massive games against Liege, Sunderland, Middlesborough etc) and it smacks of players hugely and obviously putting club before country.

I am not saying Carragher never tried or wasnt committed - but I do find the mentality of saying you dont love playing for your country or being affected more by club defeats than country defeats pretty scandalous - and if Eriksson/McClaren or whomever realised that this scally was putting club before country, they were damn well right to pick other players in his place rather than Carragher, who patently, and like other England footballers, thinks he is better than he actually is.

 

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Bad players get lucky...Good players get unlucky. Im good...and often wish I wasn't.

I wasn't saying I thought he had been misquoted, I was referring to you sensationalising his quotes

 "That is scandalous in my opinion" MTS 3/9/08 10:45

 All he basically implies is that playing for Liverpool is more important than playing for England. If you consider that we all support England because we happened to be born within the same geographical boundaries, the same applies to Carragher except he supports a smaller geograhical location where he was born slightly more than the outer boundary known as England.

 If a team called Europe was created and played the other continents we would support the team because we are from Europe but we would be more concerned with the fate of England because that is more representative of who we are.

 Carragher is one of the few footballers who has always played for the club he supports so it makes sense that he feels a closer bond to Liverpool than England. What should you love England more than a city you have spent your entire life in. That logic would imply that we should support Europe more than England.

As long as he always gives 100% when given the chance to play for England I don't see a problem.

I just don't think Carragher has said anything wrong in the above quotes, so I was taking issue with your tabloidistic comments.

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Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

Dj Durban:

I wasn't saying I thought he had been misquoted, I was referring to you sensationalising his quotes

 "That is scandalous in my opinion" MTS 3/9/08 10:45

 All he basically implies is that playing for Liverpool is more important than playing for England. If you consider that we all support England because we happened to be born within the same geographical boundaries, the same applies to Carragher except he supports a smaller geograhical location where he was born slightly more than the outer boundary known as England.

 If a team called Europe was created and played the other continents we would support the team because we are from Europe but we would be more concerned with the fate of England because that is more representative of who we are.

 Carragher is one of the few footballers who has always played for the club he supports so it makes sense that he feels a closer bond to Liverpool than England. What should you love England more than a city you have spent your entire life in. That logic would imply that we should support Europe more than England.

As long as he always gives 100% when given the chance to play for England I don't see a problem.

I just don't think Carragher has said anything wrong in the above quotes, so I was taking issue with your tabloidistic comments.

I think it is scandalous - genuinely. Anyone who gets picked to play for their National team and then come out and say they had never fallen in love with playing for England, in my opinion, which im fully entitled to, is a scandal.

It is nothing to do with playing for the team you support - do you think Bobby Moore felt the same? This is small minded mentality born from someone who feels bitter at how he believes he was treated. Carragher is at the moment revered by Liverpool fans only - are you telling me that is preferable to being revered by the fans of your country of birth?

I can well understand *why* players would put club over country, but it does not mean to say i agree with it. You can tell how much certain things means to certain players, and how in comparison it means to others. Carragher clearly states that the pinnacle of most football players is representing their nation in the World Cup finals - but to him it wasnt. If that is the case, why ever bother wanting to play for England in the first case? If Liverpool was much more important, why just not immediately retire from international football before he was picked at all or refuse to play, like Bentley did the under 21's? What if during one of his 34 caps he suffered a career ending injury? I guess that didnt occur to him at the time...yet as soon as his dummy came flying out of the pram and then in his book which he obviously wants to sell outside of Liverpool he comes out with all this dross - funny how he never went public with his views during his time in the three lions shirt eh?

It is no wonder, and i dare say we are probably the only nation around that would have small minded berks like Carragher who would think and say such things, that our National team is fast becoming an also ran on the National stage - relying on long ago past glories and reputation to preserve their so called status as a force in football. Uncanny...but which current Premiership team would you also apply that to? Hence the name of the thread......

 

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Bad players get lucky...Good players get unlucky. Im good...and often wish I wasn't.

Mark The Shark:

It is no wonder, and i dare say we are probably the only nation around that would have small minded berks like Carragher who would think and say such things, that our National team is fast becoming an also ran on the National stage - relying on long ago past glories and reputation to preserve their so called status as a force in football. Uncanny...but which current Premiership team would you also apply that to? Hence the name of the thread......

I think England becoming like Liverpool would be a good step forward. Reach the Semi Finals of the World Cup and come fourth over all. We'd be on the up!

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Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

although i think carragher should be shot for his statement(literally )  pc'ness does have a place in football as if footballers were left to there own then all hell would break loose.

personally i know that my club loses i feel way more pain than when England lose, I follow England with a passion and feel the joy of winning but the hurt from losing is dealt with much easier.

does this make me as bad as the scally?

perhaps if i was used to losing regular it would be different, say.... as a derby fan?   //////lol////////

I dont think there is any doubt that we are, mostly club supporters first and foremost, and we all live and die by our clubs fortunes and defend them to the bitter end, through the ups and downs (and in Derby's case down, down, down and down) but nonetheless they are your club, and it is them that you have ingrained on your heart.

But the thing with England is that it is EVERYONES team. Whether you're a Derby/Forest fan, Liverpool/Everton, Man U/Man City, Arsenal/Tottenham, Villa/Birmingham, whoever, we all support England. It unites the domestic teams and domestic fans - I remember going to watch the England team when they played at Pride Park, and it felt weird yet somehow right to know i was watching this team at Derby's home ground, in amongst fans of many different teams - i was actually sat next to a Forest fan and we nattered away like good uns. When England play, you have people and football fans gathering in the pubs/bars/clubs around the country all wanting England to win.....and thats not even considering the thousands of fans who fork out ridiculous sums of money following the National team home and away and giving England the best travelling support around.

The very least we should expect from the players who pull on the three lions is they should be fiercely proud and WANT to wear the shirt...and WANT to win and WANT it to matter. I say again that for Carragher to clearly state that he "was never in love playing for England" is a massive two fingers up at the united England fans who roared him on and also a massive two fingers up to the players that could have played who would LOVED to have pulled on the shirt, and to those that had played for England before him where you just know that it meant more to them than any domestic game, or pay packet, or league position. Think of Stuart Pearce, Terry Butcher, Alan Shearer, Gazza.....

How exciting was the Euros without England in it? Or the World Cup in 94 when we didnt qualify? England play with much less frequency than any domestic team - and a Liverpool loss upsets Liverpool fans, but delights thousands of others. Everyone is disappointed when England lose, or fail to qualify, or play appallingly....and that in comparison far outweighs any local disappointment.

If Carragher truly means what he has said, and this is not some very low publicity stunt designed to promote his non-descript auto-biography, he should immediately hand back to the FA his 34 England caps he picked up or give them to a charity - you think he will? No....neither do I.

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Bad players get lucky...Good players get unlucky. Im good...and often wish I wasn't.

Scirocc:

pc'ness does have a place in football as if footballers were left to there own then all hell would break loose.

Don't know what you mean?

 "I faxed a transfer request to the club at the beginning of the week, but let me state that I don't want to leave Leicester."
Stan Collymore

 "I couldn't settle in Italy. It was like living in a foreign country."
Ian Rush

"I definitely want Brooklyn to be christened, but I don't know into what religion yet."
David Beckham

"I never make predictions, and I never will."
Paul Gascoigne

"Germany are a very difficult team to play...they had 11 internationals out there today."
Steve Lomas

 "My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7."
David Beckham

"I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my right sock."
Barry Venison

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Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.

Another excerpt taken from this brainless pillock's book...I wonder if this is as defendable to you DJ Durban??

"When my leg was broken in a tackle by Lucas Neill in September 2003, my mates were ready to hunt him down if I gave the go-ahead. A few weeks later I received a phone call. "You won't believe this, Jay. We're in the Trafford Centre and Lucas Neill is walking straight towards us. What do you reckon?" Did I really want Neill to take a crack? "There's only one problem," added the voice. "Little Davey Thommo is with him." That was that. I could hardly let one of my best mates, David Thompson, now a Blackburn player, become a witness to an assault. Besides he'd have recognised the attackers. The impromptu mission was aborted and I sent a text to Thommo telling him Neill should give him a hug of thanks. As word got back to Blackburn about the near miss, or should that be hit, their coach Terry Darracott, a Scouser, appealed to one of my friends to call the boys off. I agreed."

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Bad players get lucky...Good players get unlucky. Im good...and often wish I wasn't.

Mark The Shark:

Another excerpt taken from this brainless pillock's book...I wonder if this is as defendable to you DJ Durban??

"When my leg was broken in a tackle by Lucas Neill in September 2003, my mates were ready to hunt him down if I gave the go-ahead. A few weeks later I received a phone call. "You won't believe this, Jay. We're in the Trafford Centre and Lucas Neill is walking straight towards us. What do you reckon?" Did I really want Neill to take a crack? "There's only one problem," added the voice. "Little Davey Thommo is with him." That was that. I could hardly let one of my best mates, David Thompson, now a Blackburn player, become a witness to an assault. Besides he'd have recognised the attackers. The impromptu mission was aborted and I sent a text to Thommo telling him Neill should give him a hug of thanks. As word got back to Blackburn about the near miss, or should that be hit, their coach Terry Darracott, a Scouser, appealed to one of my friends to call the boys off. I agreed."

String him up. What an idiot!

 I take back everything I said

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Support bacteria - they're the only culture some people have.