JAMIE CARRAGHER HAS told Luis Suarez to swallow his pride and stay at Liverpool next season.
Carragher was spotted pulling the wantaway Uruguayan to one side as they prepared to come off the bench in Steven Gerrard’s testimonial earlier this month.
The Anfield legend, who retired at the end of last season, revealed that his message for his former team-mate was simple: “I told him to stay.”
Following owner John Henry’s declaration that Suarez is not for sale at any price, Carragher believes that the striker will remain on Merseyside.
He said: “If [Henry] goes back on that he will make himself look stupid really, if Luis does go on to move to Arsenal or somewhere else, so it looks like he is going to be a Liverpool player.”
“To be honest I just played in Stevie’s testimonial. That’s all I know. I trained the day before, I played in the game, and Luis wasn’t his normal self. There was a lot going on at the time and obviously there still is, but I’m out of the loop now.”
“I am looking at it from John Henry’s point of view and what John Henry has come out and said.
It should be a message throughout football, not just for Liverpool, that it shouldn’t be so easy for a player to up sticks and go when he wants. We are talking about a player who signed a contract 12 months ago.
Carragher was speaking last week from Sky Sports’ headquarters in London where he is preparing to make the transition from footballer to football analyst.
And although he still has friends and former team-mates playing in the Premier League, he promises his punditry will be candid and critical.
“I’m hoping Liverpool do well and I can be as positive as possible. That would be a perfect world. But if Liverpool don’t do well, even when I was a player I would say in the press, ‘we’re not playing well, we need to improve this, we need to do that.’
You just be yourself. You don’t go looking for trouble, trying to cause controversy or nothing like that. You just give your opinion on the game, be passionate about it and sometimes when you’re passionate about something it does come across because you feel so strongly about it.
I’m certainly not coming out looking for trouble and trying to criticise people unnecessarily.
Sky Sports kicks off its biggest ever football season with 116 Premier League matches, including every club twice before December and all matches between last season’s top four.
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