Daniel Sturridge confronted Jamie Carragher in the Liverpool dressing room after the former Reds defender said the club should sell the striker while working as a pundit
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has revealed that Daniel Sturridge confronted him over his comments suggesting the Reds should offload the striker. The two found themselves sharing a dressing room during a post-season tour despite Carragher having retired and taken up punditry.
Sturridge didn’t shy away from bringing up the remarks before they took to the field together for Liverpool. The match took place in 2017, with Liverpool securing a 3-0 victory against Sydney FC. Sturridge got on the scoresheet but the striker had been struggling for fitness and lost his place in the team.
When Carragher was asked if he had ever been called out by a player for comments he made as a pundit, the Liverpool icon admitted: “It was Sturridge – he was still playing at the end with Jurgen Klopp. You wouldn’t believe this, but when I stopped playing for a couple of years, Liverpool asked me and Steven Gerrard to go on an end-of-season game in Australia,” Carragher said on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet.
“Liverpool couldn’t sell out the tickets to fill out this stadium in Australia, so they asked me, Stevie [Gerrard], and Steve McManaman to play with the team. I’d said that they’d needed to sell Daniel Sturridge, and he confronted me in the dressing room when we got over there.
“And I thought, ‘Fair play, good on you’. There is nothing worse than someone backing down, so I wasn’t going to. Sometimes, if I was a player with a journalist, I might say something and they’d back down and say sorry. But no, just front it.”
Sturridge remained at Anfield for another two seasons, playing 41 times and scoring seven goals, before moving to Trabzonspor. He was part of Liverpool’s Champions League-winning squad in 2019 and hung up his boots in 2022.
The ex-England striker has since moved into punditry and worked alongside Carragher for Sky Sports. Despite Carragher taking no issue with Sturridge sticking up for himself in the Liverpool dressing room, the pair disagreed in January following reports of Real Madrid’s interest in Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Liverpool academy graduate’s contract is set to expire in the summer and the right-back is widely reported to be joining Real Madrid in the summer. Los Blancos were claimed to have tabled a £20million bid for Alexander-Arnold at the start of the year ahead of Liverpool hosting Manchester United at Anfield, which didn’t sit well with Carragher.
“When I am talking about Trent, I am disappointed about the Real Madrid stuff coming out, and that being the focus ahead of a big game because the most important thing is Liverpool winning the Premier League,” Carragher said.
However, Sturridge interjected: “Before Madrid, you had a problem with the situation as well, I am saying.”
“This is a simple question I have for you. Are you saying you are happy with Trent leaving for free, or do you want money for him? Which one is it? You can’t sit on the fence. You either want him to stay and sign a contract, or you want him to leave now, but you can’t have it both ways – that’s football. I am a fan of Liverpool, and I love Trent Alexander-Arnold.”
After denying he had called for Liverpool to cash in on the defender, Carragher explained his stance on Alexander-Arnold’s future. “I’ve constantly defended him to other Liverpool fans and on this show, that the lad came for nothing, and if he leaves for nothing, there should be no criticism for that,” Carragher argued.
“In terms of selling him right now, I am disappointed because I know how transfers work, how football works – he will have known Real Madrid were putting a bid in.
“Real Madrid can do what they want. My problem is, Liverpool are going for a league title – it’s January, and he will have known that would kick up a fuss ahead of a big game.”
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