Extremely loud and incredibly scouse: how Jamie Carragher conquered football punditry

Football coverage no longer stops after the final whistle. And in this new era, the former Liverpool defender reigns supreme
Jamie Carragher?s legs were aching. He had been speaking to a Sky Sports cameraman for 25 minutes. Usually for a news interview it?s just 10, but today called for something more. Reports were coming out that Trent Alexander-Arnold, who inherited Carragher?s mantle as the local mainstay of Liverpool?s defence, was about to announce his long-expected departure from his boyhood club, and so, as sure as day follows night, a camera crew had been hastily dispatched to Carragher?s whereabouts to find a quiet spot, hit record and get his opinions out to viewers before they?d had a chance to fully form their own.
How much was there to say about a subject that had already been talked about all season long? Quite a lot, it turned out. Like a hunter-gatherer extracting a week?s worth of food from a seemingly arid wilderness, Carragher ? occasionally prompted by a Sky Sports anchor in the studio ? launched into nearly half an hour of pure, free-flowing, agenda-setting football opinionating. From this monologue, Sky would carve out a TV report, YouTube interview, news article and three short-form videos. When Carragher says something ? about Alexander-Arnold?s future, Arsenal?s attack, Chelsea?s owners or Fifa?s executives ? we tend to hear about it very shortly after.
Continue reading...

More...