Ring of Fire

by Simon Hughes

  Not everyone took to Houllier. Captain Paul Ince challenged him in a team meeting and was sold to Middlesbrough soon after. Robbie Fowler, who was en route to becoming Liverpool’s greatest post-war goalscorer, was also allowed to leave for Leeds United after clashes, as was David Thompson, who went to Coventry City. Each of them have since made public their views on Houllier, citing a lack of understanding on the manager’s part. Yet Carragher explains the breakdown in relationships as being a result of something even simpler than that.

  ‘You know what, there’s no trait or no science behind it when a player doesn’t like a manager. Ninety-nine per cent of the time it’s because he doesn’t play. It’s very simple. You hear players say, “We didn’t see eye to eye.” No, no, the manager didn’t rate you as highly as the other person he picked. If he’d picked you, then you’d have liked him. It’s the same at any level of football or in any industry. If he puts faith in you, you’ll have faith in him. Any other argument is irrelevant. If you were playing every week like I was, like Danny Murphy was or Michael Owen was, you’d like the manager.

  ‘When Houllier came in, he didn’t miss a trick. As soon as he saw something, he was on to it. He was comfortable taking on big characters at the club. Nobody was getting in the way of what he wanted to do in terms of discipline. Sometimes a manager might bend the rules for a star player or a captain and they say it’s good man-management. But Houllier ruled with an iron fist. It was like, “No – this is what we’re doing and this is how we’ll do it.” He took on Paul Ince. I remember him picking out [Jason] McAteer for saying something in a newspaper. If you did that, Houllier would pull you up in front of everyone. “It’s a lack of respect for your teammates,” he’d say.

  ‘Houllier was massive on the team. Nobody would stop him creating a spirit. He used to do this thing with pencils to emphasize his point. He’d get one pencil and snap it. Then he’d get eleven pencils and say, “Try to snap that.” You couldn’t. The strength of eleven pencils was greater than one.

  ‘His team meetings were unbelievable. I’d never seen anything like it before. I was in awe of him. Even someone like Gary McAllister, who was thirty-six, said he’d never seen a manager speak with so much passion. Before every season he’d do a big presentation, mapping out what he wanted to happen, explaining his values. It wasn’t done by PowerPoint. It was a really aggressive, rousing speech.

  ‘Jamie Redknapp didn’t get on great with Houllier. But I always remember him saying that if Liverpool had had Houllier in the mid nineties, they’d probably have won the league and wrestled back the initiative from United.’

  The narrative of Houllier’s reign as Liverpool manager has been covered in other chapters in this book. The success achieved by him was underpinned by a powerfully built team, one that knew what to do tactically.

  ‘It wasn’t the easiest side on the eye,’ Carragher admits. ‘I know Houllier used to get upset with that, pointing out that we’d scored 127 goals in the 2000–01 season. He should have embraced it and celebrated the fact we were resolute. We loved going to places in Europe, playing shite football, drawing 0–0 or winning 1–0. When we were at our best, we could go anywhere and do a job. It didn’t matter who the opposition was.

  ‘If you’d looked at that Liverpool team without knowing who was in charge, you’d probably think it was a British manager. The size and power: we had four centre-backs in defence. [Markus] Babbel played right-back and had been a centre-half at Bayern Munich and I was at left-back and I later developed into an established centre-back at Liverpool. Babbel got forward more than me but I certainly wasn’t a flying full-back. Then you had [Didi] Hamann in the centre of the park along with Stevie [Gerrard]. [Emile] Heskey was a big lad too and up front he helped it stick. Deep down, Houllier must have known he’d created a bit of a monster. He should have celebrated it!’

  Houllier lasted six seasons at Anfield before departing in 2004. Twelve years later, he remains the most successful manager to have taken charge of Liverpool in a quarter of a century. Of all the managers Carragher worked under, his fondest memories are those with Houllier. It makes it easier to analyse where it went wrong for him, and Carragher admits that after Houllier suffered a heart attack in 2002 he was never quite the same.

  ‘Towards the end, Houllier wasn’t as aggressive, decisive and clinical. He wasn’t himself. There were things that he wouldn’t have let go a few years before. Maybe he realized he was clinging on to his job and needed people on his side. It happens to a lot of managers. When they go into a club, they know they have a certain amount of time to shape things. They can be combative. But as time passes, you probably need to be more of a politician while maintaining your integrity. Otherwise the politics of the club can drag you down. You become paranoid and lose your focus.’

  Carragher looks back on Houllier’s years in charge with great fondness. Yet the period was not without its frustrations. He thought about leaving Liverpool.

  ‘Yeah, it got to the stage under Houllier when it felt like he was continually buying players in my position, so I considered it. I got wound up when Finnan came in. There was a constant mental battle to prove yourself. It was like, “I’ve been here seven years, I won the treble – do I still need to do this?” Then Benítez’s first signing was a right-back [Josemi]. I thought, “For fuck sake, here we go again.” I’d finished the previous season really well, even though Houllier was on his way out. I was like, “Yeah, I’m sorted now.” Then a new manager comes in and gets a right-back straight away. Your mind begins to go. It was pissing me off. Mentally, it’s hard to keep going season after season. In the previous years, I’d started each season thinking at the start of pre-season, “This person won’t play ahead of me.” It was on my mind all the time, every training session. It was exhausting. There’s only so much you can take of that, being in a zone where you’re so wound up.’

  Carragher had finished Houllier’s reign as a centre-back and played well. It was soon clear that Rafael Benítez wanted him to remain there.

  ‘He was talking to me a lot in the early training sessions. He saw me as an organizer. I have to be honest, I thought my days at centre-back were over, really. [Igor] Bišćan had played there under Houllier ahead of me and somebody had said that I was too small. It got into my head that I was a full-back. I didn’t look at Bišćan and Djimi [Traoré] and think, “Wait a minute, that should be my position.” I was player of the year in Houllier’s first season as a centre-back [1998–99] but had a few bad games the following season and was moved out. Maybe his way of thinking got into my head as well. I wasn’t going into Benítez’s first year with any guarantees.’

  Carragher was not alone in wondering what it was like away from Liverpool. In successive summers, Steven Gerrard had thought about moving to Chelsea. In 2004, shortly after Benítez’s appointment, Michael Owen followed through with the idea and went to Real Madrid.

  ‘I roomed with Michael at the very beginning of my professional career and later I was with Stevie. We’d lie awake talking about things: our hopes, our fears. Stevie was thinking seriously about Chelsea and I’d say to him, “Yeah, but Liverpool is one of those clubs you can’t walk away from. How does a local lad leave Liverpool?”

  ‘I look at the career of Steve McManaman, who was a brilliant player and later proved himself at Real Madrid as world class. But is anyone really that bothered about it around Liverpool? Not really. McManaman won two cup finals for Liverpool on his own but because of the way he left, it gets forgotten. I’d lie there late at night with Stevie, because he’d have offers every summer to go elsewhere. “Remember McManaman,” I’d tell him. “You might go and win something but in Liverpool nobody will be arsed about it.” On the flip side, if you stay too long you get people saying, “You’re shite, you’re finished” as soon as you hit thirty and have a few bad games.

  ‘I thought a lot about my reputation. Even now I do. Since I’ve stopped playing, I’ve worked for Sky and have a column with the Da
ily Mail. You get offered loads of different things for money and you think, “Bloody ’ell, it’s good money that.” But it wouldn’t look right. Betting shops have been in touch asking me to do their advertising. It isn’t me, so I turned them down.

  ‘Players might not admit it but I’m sure if Michael could turn the clock back he would have stayed at Liverpool. McManaman is slightly different because he went to Real Madrid and won two European Cups. Deep down, I think most footballers want to feel loved. That’s more important than anything to me. If I was advising a young player, I’d tell them to think about their legacy – how you’re thought of at the end of your career.’

  Carragher told Gerrard that if he were to leave Liverpool, it should only be for Real Madrid.

  ‘Look at Ian Rush: he goes to Juventus then comes back to Liverpool. We had these conversations where I’d say, “If I was in your position and you don’t think we’re doing well, you have to go to Real Madrid.” I didn’t think Barcelona would have suited the way he played. Stevie was more dynamic. Look at what [Cristiano] Ronaldo did for Madrid; he probably couldn’t have done that at Barcelona because the demands are different.

  ‘I’d tell Stevie that if he was going to go to Real Madrid, it had to be when he was in his prime. Of course, we wanted him at Liverpool when he was in his prime but going there then would have given him the time to come back. If you go to Madrid at thirty-one, there’s no way home. At twenty-seven or twenty-eight, it would have been ideal for him to do the foreign thing for three or four years.

  ‘What I’d really say is, he couldn’t sign for another English club, although I think he knew that. Especially being a local player. He’d come home from Chelsea with three or four Premier League medals but when he was forty, where was he going to go for a pint or a meal in town? Nobody was going to ask him about them because Liverpool people wouldn’t be interested. In fact, we’d be fuming about it.’

  Carragher believes Gerrard remained at Liverpool because, deep down, he appreciated all of this. In the years where he could have left, it was felt that Liverpool were close to being where they wanted to be: reaching cup finals in Europe and at home, winning a few, getting a bit closer to the league title. It was enough to keep Gerrard, despite the efforts of opponents like Raúl, who asked Gerrard to sign for Real during a 4–0 victory at Anfield in 2009.

  Carragher admits Gerrard was more emotional than him, despite a public persona that suggested he was always in control.

  ‘Considering how good a player he was, Stevie would worry. I know the Lampard–Gerrard thing used to annoy him [where the two midfielders’ performances for England were constantly cross-examined]. It didn’t get him angry but it would be inside his head. It boiled down to his desire to be the best. He didn’t want to fall behind. He didn’t want Liverpool to fall behind.’

  Gerrard is not alone in his insecurities. Carragher has the same impression of Graeme Souness and Roy Keane, midfielders with similar reputations – characters he’s since worked with for Sky.

  ‘No player is brilliant at absolutely everything. Everyone has a weakness or something, at least, they’re not so good at. The greatest players, I think, use that insecurity as motivation. It drives them on. You think about Souness and Keane, you see them on the TV and think they’re superhuman. But when you talk to them, you realize there is a sheen to their personality. Chip away and maybe they’re not as confident as they seem. Put them on the football pitch and it’s like they put a tin hat on and power through. The determination to be the best and the insecurity drives them.’

  Carragher says he isn’t aware of any other clubs making offers for him and wonders whether it’s because he made it known how happy he was at Liverpool through the press. During a television interview in 2006, when asked whether he’d ever sign for a bigger club than Liverpool, he responded incredulously and emphatically: ‘Who’s bigger than Liverpool?’

  ‘I nailed my colours to the mast so much, I wonder if it put other clubs off,’ he says. ‘Maybe they thought I wouldn’t leave. Sometimes I probably undersold myself. If I’m being totally honest, when I was at my peak – for four or five years – I could have played for anybody. I don’t want that to make me sound like a big-head. Maybe Barcelona or Real Madrid would be taking it too far because of the unbelievable type of football they played, with full-backs flying everywhere. But in that period, I was playing for a team that was featuring in the semi-finals or the final of the Champions League. There was me, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Carles Puyol, [Fabio] Cannavaro and [Alessandro] Nesta. I wouldn’t say I was any better than them but I was competing at the very highest level.’

  Carragher says he sympathized with new signings trying to fit in at Melwood, as it was a process that he never experienced elsewhere. He began to realize that those who made a positive first impression would often end up being a success at Liverpool, though it wasn’t always the case.

  ‘You know pretty early but not always. [Momo] Sissoko’s first week in training was horrific. But he ended up being a good signing for us. The really good ones, you get an idea with on the first day. When Xabi Alonso came in, you could see immediately [that he was talented] because of the way he passed the ball. I’m not talking about 60-yard passes, I mean 10-yarders: bang – punching it in. He looked the part.

  ‘I remember looking at [Igor] Bišćan and he had a pair of Copa Mundials on. His laces were done so tight, you’re thinking, What top player does that? He just didn’t look right. How was he going to kick the ball properly?’

  Didi Hamann was one player who did not impress Carragher initially in his first season only to improve drastically in the second and thereafter.

  ‘It sometimes happens the other way, where you get kidded someone is a good player by the way they start, having five or six good games early on. You think, We’re on to someone here. Josemi was one of them. He was aggressive, getting stuck in in training and playing well. Then in his third game, someone ran away from him at Bolton and suddenly you think, Hmm, that’s a bit worrying. As the season goes on, you realize the truth.’

  There are a few signings Carragher believes Liverpool should have made. Damien Duff from Blackburn was one under Houllier.

  ‘We finished second and as a player you think about the players you’ve faced who could win us the league. We didn’t have a top wide player and Duff was playing really well for Blackburn. We beat them 4–3 at Anfield and he was brilliant. Realistically, you’re also thinking about who you can buy. Duff had grown up with Blackburn, which isn’t too far away. Sometimes I look back and think, I wish I was the manager back then; why did you not do that?’

  Under Benítez, Liverpool’s spine was as strong as it was under Houllier. The problems, again, were in the wide positions.

  ‘We used to ask Rafa a lot about Joaquín [the Real Betis winger]. Rafa was adamant his mentality was wrong. Maybe he was right, because he probably didn’t fulfil his potential. But sometimes a player comes to a club and it clicks, even if it makes a difference for one season only.

  ‘Simão was another one. I’d marked him against Barcelona in the UEFA Cup semi-final at Anfield in 2001 [which Liverpool won 1–0]. He was so wide on the pitch, right on the touchline. I was permanently worried about where he was. He was really clever with his movement. I think he might have been a good one, because I like those wide players who can play on both sides. The story goes that we missed out on him but if we really, really wanted him, why was the deal only being finalized on the last day of the transfer window? I wanted us to get him but when the deal fell through I was wondering whether he was a panic buy because it was so late. If he’s your man, put a bid in in June or July.’

  The purchase Liverpool made that surprised Carragher the most was Peter Crouch.

  ‘I couldn’t believe it when we signed him, being totally honest. It was a strange one because we had [Fernando] Morientes at the time already and I was thinking to myself, Morientes can’t run; Crouch can’t run – how’s this going t
o work? Initially, I think Rafa wanted to play the two of them together, because he told me about the option of playing Morientes in the hole. It looked really slow to me, that, especially when you consider Rafa sometimes liked to play counter-attacking football away from home. Who was going to run?

  ‘Crouchy, though, was a brilliant player for Liverpool. People go on about his height [Crouch is 6 ft 7 in.] but it was his finishing that set him apart for me. Look at the different types of goals he scored. Whenever he had a clear sight, he slotted it coolly. He was a brilliant finisher: volleys, overhead kicks, headers. He was never going to win us a league but the job he did was very good. He was a great lad to have in the dressing room too.’

  Under Benítez, Carragher says British players generally struggled to make an impact.

  ‘The ones that had been there before were OK because we were used to the intensity of the training under Houllier, where the game at the end of the session was at match pace with tactical responsibilities and positions. Jermaine Pennant and Craig Bellamy weren’t used to this, for example. It’s fair to say Craig didn’t like Rafa at all. Rafa is someone who breaks your game down and tells you exactly what he wants you to do. For a defender, it’s not so bad, because it’s black and white: when a ball goes in a certain area, you’ve got to be there. I can understand why a forward might find it frustrating, especially when you first join because you’re desperate to start scoring goals and play a bit off the cuff. Robbie Keane later had the same problem.