Part 1 of an exclusive Q&A with Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher about the unforgettable 2000-01 season, which saw the club win a cup treble in the most dramatic of fashions
Jamie Carragher has been looking back on Liverpool's treble-winning 2000-01 treble-winning campaign
Jamie Carragher has been looking back on Liverpool's treble-winning 2000-01 treble-winning campaign
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It is 25 years since Liverpool's remarkable treble-winning campaign. The Reds followed their dramatic victories in the League Cup and FA Cup finals with a thrilling 5-4 success over Alaves in the UEFA Cup showpiece in Dortmund on May 16, 2001.
For Blood Red magazine, Gareth Roberts had the chance to sit down with a key member of Gerard Houllier's team, Anfield legend Jamie Carragher, to get his memories on the season to remember, a quarter of a century on.
And for Liverpool ECHO subscribers, we're now publishing the brilliant Q&A, the first part of which is here. Enjoy...
Gareth Roberts: If I say to you the 2000-2001 season, what's the first thing that comes into your head?
Jamie Carragher: My favourite season of my life. By far, by far the most enjoyable. People are always shocked when I say that because they always think of Istanbul. Istanbul is a moment, Istanbul is a Champions League run in a poor season.
The 2001 season was one of constantly winning and we finished third in the league as well.
When you're a footballer you want that buzz after the game of winning and that thing of coming in the training ground the next day – you can’t wait to get in and see everyone and it was just that constantly every week – there was almost no downs really.
Most seasons have a few ups and downs and in 2005 there were lots of downs: going out of the FA Cup to Burnley, the league form, getting beat by s***e teams all the time. But 2001, it was like we were winning every week.
For me, I think that was the first year I became a proper Liverpool player.
I was in Rome a couple of weeks ago with my missus. It just brought me back. I probably shouldn't be jumping to the Rome game so quick, but Rome away was the first game where it was like – this feels big,
It feels like this is what Liverpool are. Because before that, we hadn't really played in Europe. I was knocking about when we got to the semis of the Cup Winners' Cup, but I wasn't really involved.
Then the year after we got beat early by Celta Vigo, a Spanish team we'd never really heard of. I think the next year we might not even have been in Europe. So it just felt like, here we go, this is like what being a proper Liverpool player is like. Yeah, without doubt, my favourite season by a mile.
GR: Can you remember what it was like going into the season? I can't imagine you, the manager, or anyone involved thinking about three trophies and qualifying for the Champions League. What did you think was a realistic expectation?
JC: Don't forget the year before we missed out on the Champions League at the last game at Bradford away. And we didn’t realise what the Champions League was at the time. Houllier was devastated. We were gutted, but the Champions League wasn't what the Champions League became. We didn’t quite understand or grasp how big it was. But it was probably the best thing that happened to us, because we weren't ready to be in the Champions League.
The UEFA Cup was perfect for us. It’s easy for me to say that now, it’s only with hindsight to say that. But obviously we wouldn't have had the season that we had if we’d have been in the Champions League.
To be honest, the feeling going into the season, it’s funny because everyone thinks selfishly as a player. You go into the season, you’re thinking, right, who have we bought? It’s great.
Everyone's buzzing when they buy players in other positions.
You’re not happy when they buy players in your position. And we bought Markus Babbel in the summer. I think it was well documented he was coming. I remember being on holiday and watching a few Germany games and thinking ‘oh f*****g hell’. I played right-back the year before. So to be honest, I was going into that season thinking I've got a bit of a fight on my hands here.
I’d just been used to playing every week for Liverpool. So to be honest, I was thinking more, where am I going to fit in?
But I remember Houllier pulling me in pre-season. I don’t know if he’d signed Ziege by that time, but I remember him saying, he loved me and he wanted me in his team.
CARDIFF, UNITED KINGDOM: Liverpool's French Manager GTrard Houllier (C) shelters from champagne with Jamie Carragher (R) while Phil Thomson (far L), assistant coach, looks on during the celebrations after Liverpool won the FA Cup final at The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff 12 May 2001. Liverpool's Michael Owen scored two late goals to snatch victory from Arsenal 2-1. (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Gerard Houllier shelters from champagne with Jamie Carragher (R) while Phil Thomson (L) looks on during the celebrations after Liverpool won the FA Cup final at the Millennium Stadium(Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
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He used to say to me I’ll find a place for you somewhere. I don’t know where, but I’ll find a place for you. So even he didn’t really know where I was fitting into this, but he wanted my personality in the team. So to be honest, the start of that season, it was a little bit like almost looking after yourself mode than thinking about the team.
Houllier used to always have a meeting in pre-season about where the season was going – he was an unbelievable manager, Houllier. Unbelievable.
And he used to map out the season in a pre-season talk for an hour. It was pretty special. He’d say where we want to get to, how many points we want to get. You couldn’t go ‘we are going to win three trophies’ but he had an obsession with Europe, Houllier. He was obsessed with it.
GR: What was Houllier like then? Because he's in position obviously by then. He's brought a load of players as well. He signs like eight or nine across that season. There's no transfer window then – so there were players coming in in September and December and stuff like that. But across the season, I think there's eight or nine coming in. It's a boss squad.
JC: Yeah, yeah, and you know what I remember Joe Royle. He was the Man City manager and he was saying Liverpool have got the best squad or the best strikers in the country. And you think, yeah, it means something when someone else from another team says that. And when you look back at it now, you think, that's probably the best squad I played in. Houllier always had that thing of two players for every position. You know, that hadn't really been a thing before that – two quality players for every position but luckily for me the position I found myself in he never changed the back four, so I knew I was playing every game. Once I got in at left-back I was there so the wide players always changed and the centre-forwards. The centre-midfield changed a little bit now and again but he never changed the back four.
GR: We’ve got to mention Gary Mac, he's absolutely loved by Liverpool fans, he's got the song and all the rest of it. But what did everyone think behind the scenes when we signed him? Because I've heard Phil Thompson say that even he said to Houllier, I’m not sure about how that looks. You know, you’re trying to go forward, build a side, and then you are signing a fella who is 35 who has been playing for Coventry.
JC: Well, I always remember the year before we played Coventry at Anfield and I was playing centre-midfield and in the team talk before the game, Houllier went, ‘you’re a petrol car, he's a diesel’ – you know, something that just sticks in your mind? Houllier was like that in team meetings, he’d really pump you up about the game – ‘you can't let him get the best of you, see the age of him, he's a diesel car’. It always stuck with me and then he signed him. I remember what you said in the team meeting six months ago!
I think Jamie Redknapp was injured at the time and McAllister comes in almost as cover for Jamie and someone there with a bit of experience in the team, because there are a lot of young lads in there, really.
And he was a free transfer. So I think that was the idea.
But getting to know Gary McAllister, he was never a person who was going to accept not playing. He was fuming if he wasn't playing. He wasn't like, if I play, I play – he wanted to play.
He had that thing about him – he loved footie. He was a great lad. I’m still in touch with him now. He’s a really good lad. He should have been a Liverpool player 10 years before. He was a Liverpool player wasn’t he? When you think about it.
Gary McAllister and Jamie Carragher celebrate after the thrilling win over Alaves
Gary McAllister and Jamie Carragher celebrate after the thrilling win over Alaves
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GR: Just to go back to Houllier, we know he got angry at times and obviously had beef with various players. You tend to speak your mind as well, so did you ever clash?
JC: No, I never clashed with any manager really. A tiny little bit at the end with Benitez and when I look back on it, I probably shouldn't have got involved.
For me Houllier was all about the team, the club together, and that’s me as well, like everyone should be together. Whereas Rafa at the end, he’d be causing murder all the time. And in the end I’d want to kill him.
He'd be in the papers every day saying something, a headline every morning.
With Rafa, you play a game and you’d wake up in the morning and there would be headlines and we’d have a big game and we don't need it.
Houllier was all about the team. He’d go mad at subs if they had a face on in the dressing room. That’s what I loved about him.
And the thing I love about Houllier more than anything is the day he left when he sat there with Rick Parry in the press conference and I thought, how class is that, that is Liverpool for me.
And when I think of Houllier, I think Liverpool, even though he's French. He was proper Liverpool.
I think at the end with Rick Parry and David Moores, they're saying, shake hands, move on, what a great time we've had together. I thought, brilliant, loved it, loved that. But he was very big on if you didn’t put the team first he would go bananas. He was not having anyone thinking they were bigger than the club or special treatment or nothing like that.
GR: Did he talk you up, did he motivate you?
JC: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he was the best motivator I ever had as a manager by a mile. His team meetings were brilliant, really good. They were funny as well, but really aggressive too. We played Leeds a lot and they were a bit of a rival then, up and coming alongside Man United and Arsenal. He used to put their team up – and they were aggressive – and he'd just circle about seven of them and go thug, thug, thug, thug, thug, thug, thug. He’d say don't be bullied by it, he’s a thug, he’s a thug. Hilarious.
GR: Obviously we'll come on and talk about the finals but what are your top three games that aren't the finals?
JC: Everton, obviously. Rome away. Rome away was a funny one for me because I got injured at Leeds, I’d gone into a block tackle with David Batty. You know you're going for a tackle and you’re like, what was that? Carries on to the end of the game. Danny Murphy got stretchered off that game. I went block tackle with the Batty.
He had all his body behind him, but I was just hanging my leg a little bit and was just like, ooh the inside of me knee. I missed the next three games. The first game I'm back for was Roma away.
But Houllier wasn’t one of them who would tell you you’re playing. And my head is just working overtime thinking I’ve got to play in this game.
So Houllier, the night before the game, when we’re playing on the pitch, went to me, ‘are you fit?’ And I said, ‘yeah, fit to play’. I just put it right back on him.
Houllier just smiled. But I didn’t know until like two hours before I was playing. But I’d say Rome away because it felt big, you know, as I said before.
And I always remember waking up, you know, your afternoon kip and that. And you could hear like the fans in the distance.
February in Rome. One of those cold days with the sun and the fans and you’re thinking, this is massive.
And we won there 2-0. That felt big. So I'd say Everton, Roma and probably winning away at Old Trafford.
READ PART 2 TOMORROW (MAY 14)