Jamie Carragher was known as a bit of a utility player during his long club career with Liverpool and with England at international level.
Starting his career as a central midfielder, Carragher broke into the senior team at full-back before finally establishing himself in his preferred role in the centre of defence. His versatility has continued in his post-playing career, emerging as one of the game’s most respected and well thought of commentators and pundits.
The Bootle-born pundit is now entertaining viewers on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the main faces of Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage and a regular on American broadcaster CBS Sports' Champions League presentation.
But it appears he isn’t content with that and made a cheeky play to become the anchor of the programme which airs Stateside, removing host Kate Abdo from her seat ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League semi-final with Villarreal.
The 44-year-old was one of three pundits - along with Thierry Henry and Micah Richards - analysing the last four first-leg, with accomplished host Kate Abdo leading the way. But after impressing his fellow experts with his own presenting skills, he went for the top job.
His voiceover explaining the history of Liverpool’s famous crest earned applause from his colleagues, with Richards heaping praise on his mate: “Absolutely terrific, I mean Kate was nervous!” It was at that point Carragher made his way over to Abdo’s seat and jokingly ushered her towards his own chair in the middle of the desk.
“We’ve got a new presenter in town,” a typically joyful Richards added. “I’ve always wanted to sit over here anyway,” Abdo said as she made her way into Carragher’s usual spot.
The Liverpool legend was then encouraged to continue with hosting responsibilities and Carragher took it in stride, completing the link and setting up an interview between Jurgen Klopp and Guillem Balague.
He subsequently retweeted a video of the incident from CBS which intimated that Carragher was now chasing Kate Abdo’s job. And while his attempt to become a host may have been a playful one, his journey to punditry expert has been serious endeavour with no shortcuts taken along the way.
"If you have got passionate thoughts and feelings about the game, and you are passionate about football, it helps,” he explained to Sky Sports previously. "I've always been that way, whether that makes me a good pundit is for other people to decide.
"The days of pundits, not just on our channel but every channel, coming into a game and not doing their homework are long gone. I think that was the case 15, 20 years ago but it's not the case now."
He added: What a job, I do love being a pundit, an analyst, whatever you want to call it. I love my job, I'm privileged to have one of the best seats in the house.
"We've been lucky to have the careers we had as players, but not many people have the career we have coming out of the game as a pundit. A lot of people want to do it, and I can understand why."
