Talksport broadcaster Adrian Durham has offered his side of the story on Jamie Carragher’s iconic phone-in to his radio show in 2007.
After retiring from international football that year at the age of 29, Durham called Carragher a “bottler” when suggesting that the Liverpool man should have continued competing for his place in the England side.
Carragher, though, took umbrage with Durham’s comments, and decided to call Talksport to hash things out live on air. He has since revealed he did so while on the way to training for the Reds, refusing to back down from his decision to leave the England set up.
Adrian Durham offers his side of story in Jamie Carragher debate
“It would be interesting to see if you’ve got any bottle,” Carragher said. “Come down to Liverpool and say it to my face, then we’ll see. Don’t call me a bottler on national radio in front of thousands of people, I’ve been proving myself for eight years.”
Durham claims that he did take Carragher up on his offer of going to Liverpool and speaking face-to-face. It was while in Liverpool that Durham recognised the reason behind Carragher’s decision, helping giving him a fresh outlook on footballers in the process.
“You may recall Jamie Carragher calling Talksport after I said he was a bottler for retiring from England,” Durham exclusively tells FourFourTwo after being asked what the best piece of advice he has had while working as a broadcaster. “I was put on the spot, but fair play to him – and it made fantastic radio.
“His advice was to come to Anfield and say it to his face, so I did. We did a show up there. I went into the bar afterwards, but it was mostly empty because international matches were coming up and a lot of the players headed off early for that.
“It was then that I realised all of Carragher’s family were there. I got it. Rather than sitting on the bench, he wanted to spend some time with his young kids. So, the advice I took on board was to try to see things more from the perspective of players.”
Carragher did return for the national team three years later when Fabio Capello included the centre-back in his provisional 30-man squad for the 2010 World Cup. He then played his first match in a friendly match against Mexico, before playing the first two matches of the Three Lions’ campaign in South Africa.
Two yellow cards in those two games caused him to miss the third group game against Slovenia through suspension, with Capello then preferring Matthew Upson at centre-back in the last 16 against Germany.
After that tournament, he permanently retired from international football, claiming his return had been a “one-off” due to injuries to key personnel.
