Forever England | 21 August 2010

There’s a chant they sing at Anfield to the tune of Yellow Submarine — ‘We all dream of a team of Carraghers…’. And so they should. The doughty old Scouser has emerged as something of a hero. There was his gift of £10,000 to Andy Burnham’s Labour leadership campaign, one of the most startling acts of political activism since Robbie Fowler showed his ‘I support the Dockers’ T-shirt. Carragher ended his international ‘retirement’ to turn out for England and Fabio Capello in the World Cup, so his gift shows that his appetite for lost causes is undiminished.

Even more surprising, and engaging, was his warmth towards the England manager. Everyone has been lining up to give the Italian a bashing, but not Jamie Carragher. ‘I loved him,’ he said at the weekend. ‘I used to watch the World Cup games with him everyday, myself and Stevie (Gerrard) and some of the other players would join us. We’d have a chat and he was fine. He was very straight, very strong. I like that from a manager.’

Well said, Jamie. You can’t beat loyalty in my view, and what a pity you have had to re-retire, though inevitable I guess. But what is it about playing for England that makes footballers want to quit?

Is it age? Do me a favour. Stanley Matthews was 41 when in 1956 at Wembley he upstaged the great Nilton Santos of Brazil in having a foot in all of England’s goals in an amazing 4-2 victory. Geoffrey Green wrote in the Times: ‘Marshals and scarlet Caesars have won their victories on land, but few could have equalled in colour and dramatic contexts this triumph of the Apollonic English game over the Dionysiac dance of Brazil… (and) in the end it was the particular artistry of Stanley Matthews, backed by the iron spirit and direct skill of his colleagues, who saw England home.’