New Contract A Must For Carragher

JAMIE Carragher is a true hero for Liverpool Football Club. He embodies everything that is good about Liverpool.

Not only is he a local lad made good but his professional attitude helped take him to the very pinnacle of the sport in lifting the European Cup.

And that is why a new contract should be drawn-up for Carragher.

Brendan Rodgers recently stated in an interview with Sky Sports that he believed that Carragher could continue to contribute to the playing squad for a few more years and while there is certainly cause to have reservations about that assessment, there is no doubt that Carragher can continue to offer the club a great deal – whether playing or not.

Carragher is a self-confessed football obsessive from beaming obscure football matches to his television screen to offering his thoughts on the action as a pundit; Jamie Carragher is a true student of the game. No other man would rescind their international retirement decision solely for the purpose of experiencing the methods of a famed coach. But Carra did not feel he could pass up the opportunity of seeing Fabio Capello in action, a man who can conjure up La Liga titles almost at will.

At Liverpool as well as any club, it is important to keep a link between the greatest of successes and the contemporary playing staff. It would be hard to imagine Zinedine Zidane or Bobby Charlton representing any other clubs than Real Madrid and Man Utd respectively and the same should be true of Carragher.

In Jamie the club has a dedicated professional who has received almost every football decoration there is. Therefore he should be given a contract to stay whether on a playing basis, as a coach or a combination of the two. He is a true football rarity in having played his whole career at Liverpool and to give him up could prove myopic.

The club made a mistake when Sami Hyypia was allowed to leave – another club icon who understood the traditions and skill required to be a success at Anfield. His experience could have been helpful to a selection of young players now looking to break into the team and there’s no doubt that he would remind them precisely what is expected if they are to play in the first team on a regular basis.
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Carragher’s loyalty to both the club and the fans should be applauded and equally, should continue to be rewarded. For the best part of a decade Carragher set standards ever higher and achieved them through paying attention to detail and working incredibly hard. However, to place his success simply as being a result of hard work would do Carragher a complete disservice.

His ability to martial the defence and talk players through games were vital to making him such an important part of the team. On top of this, his positional sense and reading of the game was second-to-none and aerially he was largely unrivalled. Add to that the ability to block almost certain goals and Carragher was the ultimate package defensively.

These abilities are something that we should encourage to be passed on to younger players and new players who come to Anfield and if he can pick up more appearances for the club in the meantime then I would be in favour. A man of great stature, a footballing character who will always put the club first and someone with such experience and success that he commands respect should forever remain connected to Liverpool Football Club. There are so many benefits to keeping Carragher that to do otherwise would seem foolhardy.

And with that in mind we should not consider the prospect of losing one of our favoured sons. Carragher has stated that he would not want to play in another shirt and that is a view that should be shared by all fans of LFC.

Carragher is an icon and if anyone could make a return to the inward promotion and bootroom mentality that fostered so much success, then Carragher could be that man.
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