Jamie Carragher ignited a further social media backlash after responding to the onslaught of criticism that he's faced from Chelsea fans. The former Liverpool defender was on the receiving end of a number of scathing comments from Blues after suggesting Manchester United raid the club for manager Thomas Tuchel.
This came in the wake of Roman Abramovich being sanctioned by the UK Government, freezing his assets - which included Chelsea - with immediate effect. Carragher insisted that Manchester United should exploit the world champions' impending financial crisis and labelled Blues fans as 'hypocritical' for their disbelief towards the prospect of other clubs replicating similar tactics to the ones used by Chelsea thanks to Abramovich's ownership.
While much of what the Sky Sports pundit said was fair, the 44-year-old's inaccurate claim regarding the integrity of Chelsea's academy completely undermines the incredible work that has been done at Cobham in recent years to bring players through the system. So the CareFreeChelsea team at football.london have taken a deep dive into every word Carragher said in his reply to Blues fans.
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Transfer market is largely about opportunity
"It is fair to say I had a few heated discussions at Stamford Bridge yesterday. The Chelsea supporters, the same as any set of supporters, are very passionate about their club and at this moment feel like the world is attacking them," Carragher said on Sky Sports. "They are defending their club and I totally get that. There were a few conversations about that and I wouldn’t change my opinion on it.
"The reason why I feel like it’s a little bit hypocritical of Chelsea supporters is that if teams, whether that’s Manchester United with the manager or people thinking they can get Chelsea players, [they] are going to take advantage of the situation that they are in right now. "Chelsea have been doing that for 20 years. That was the big thing about Roman Abramovich coming."
Carragher, for the most part here, is right; the transfer market is widely about opportunity and clubs have to be ruthless if they wish to land the player, manager, coach or member of staff that they desire. When approaching, in or after a period of financial turbulence at any workplace it is natural that the futures of employees are in jeopardy - it's just that you never see Tesco sign Joe Bloggs from Asda on a free.
There was always going to be the chance that Chelsea lose Thomas Tuchel during this period of unrest but the German has held tight and battled against the uncertainty that continues to shroud the club. Carragher is also right that the Blues didn't go about their business in the early stages of Abramovich's reign in the best way possible but - and this is by no means justifying the fines that Chelsea incurred - legislation must be in place to deter clubs from willingly accepting said fines. Transfer bans and fines are like parking tickets for the rich; it's purely the price that the wealthy are happy to pay in order to get what they want - where's the deterrent?
Unfortunately, money talks in football and that's the sad reality
"We can throw our money about and get who we want. We’re going to go to Manchester United and the first thing we’ll do… they’ve got a money-making machine at Manchester United, we want to become that," Carragher said.
"We’re going to get Peter Kenyon, their CEO. We’ll go to Liverpool and take the best midfield player in Europe [Steven Gerrard] and destabilise that club for two summers - didn’t get him. We’ll get Ashley Cole. Invincible, won everything at Arsenal, yeah we’ll get him. We get caught tapping up, it doesn’t matter, we’ll pay the fine.
"England were flying at the time under Sven-Goran Eriksson. England manager, no we want him at Chelsea, it doesn’t matter what he’s doing with the FA or England. We’ll have him and we’ll pay the fine don’t worry. We’ll get caught with that." Again, while it may be hard to swallow, most of what Carragher said is fair here but the Gerrard comment, in particular, seems a tad bitter.
If Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool weren't allowed to sign the best players, go after the best managers, recruit the best board staff then English football wouldn't be enjoying its European dominance. The sport has bred a dangerous kill-or-be-killed siege mentality whereby clubs are always looking for the next piece of the puzzle at any cost because the reward is greater than the repercussions that could follow.
Jibe at the academy is inaccurate, end of
"They win the youth cup every year, or they get in the final. It’s not because they’ve got the best coaches or the best academy, but because they’ve gone and taken the best players from every club within the country and relocated the family and given the dad a scouting job," Carragher added.
Carragher, in fairness, quickly apologised for this comment about Chelsea's academy on Twitter and on Gary Neville's Instagram Live after the Monday Night Football show. But it's important to realise that in the five-year run where the Blues were FA Youth Cup champions, they used 102 players at under-18 level, according to Chelsea academy expert @ChelseaYouth on Twitter.
For greater context, Raheem Sterling went from Queens Park Rangers to Liverpool, Jadon Sancho from Watford to City and Billy Gilmour from Rangers to Chelsea. Almost half of those joined the club aged nine or younger and went right through the system so I'd highly recommend that everyone has a read of the Twitter thread outlined below for the full facts on the youth situation. Any suggestions to the contrary are wide of the mark.
The verdict
"Chelsea Football Club have taken advantage of every other club in the last 20 years because of Roman Abramovich," Carragher said, as he began to wrap up his rant. "So if I’ve got an opinion of someone taking advantage of them, that’s just a fact, it’s a way of life. And that’s the way it may be for Chelsea, they have to accept that.
"Some of the things with Chelsea, in terms of closing the club shop and stopping kids getting Mason Mount on the back of their shirt, I don’t agree with that. And I certainly don’t want Chelsea to go to the wall, I don’t want that at all. But if that’s my opinion on it, I certainly don’t want Chelsea fans next time I go there questioning my opinion because that’s exactly what Chelsea have done for 20 years."
The Blues have come under siege since news emerged of Abramovich's sanctions and Carragher's rant lacked someone to offer a Chelsea perspective in response. A lot of what Carragher said is completely fair, even if it did come across as a little bitter having come from somebody whose former side have won four fewer Premier League titles than Chelsea since the turn of the millennium. The fact there was hesitation from presenter David Jones around some of Carragher's comments confirmed that what was being presented as fact in some cases, namely the inaccurate dig at the club's academy, was actually opinion.
