Roger Alton Roger Alton

Forever England | 21 August 2010

Roger Alton reviews the week in sport

issue 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.

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