Two years ago, Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher published ‘Carra…‘, an autobiography in which, amongst various jaunty tales of pre-meditated assault, the centre-back ‘questioned’ the work ethic of his former Anfield teammate – Senegalese forward El Hadji Diouf, who joined the club six years previous.
Carragher had a few choice words to say pertaining to Diouf’s footballing priorities, effectively implying that he didn’t care about winning or losing, rather the stream of luxuries that his affluent career choice could (and had) afforded him – albeit using slightly terser phrasing.
It seems that these undermining comments rankled with Diouf who, after letting the hatred stew away for the best part of two years, has finally seen fit to bite back – and he really hasn’t pulled any punches in airing his grudge.
Quoted in this morning’s Sun, the Blackburn winger set out belittling his former cohort – first branding Carragher as a ‘nothing’, then likening him to a selection of commonplace condiments:
“If Liverpool had 10 players like Jamie Carragher, then they would never win anything. Carragher, for me, is nothing.
He’s like a brand of ketchup or mustard to a normal person, not important.
I played for Liverpool for two years and Carragher never spoke to me. That’s life, some people are like that.”
Open question to Mr Diouf: Have you ever considered that ‘Carra’ didn’t venture to engage you in conversation because you are quite obviously an obnoxious pr*ck? Hmmm, thought not.
Anyway, the tirade continues:
“We didn’t have a team at Liverpool. We had the English somewhere and the French boys somewhere. If it’s like that, you can do nothing together.
“Carragher is just a guy who loves to talk, but Carragher doesn’t sell papers, Carragher doesn’t sell shirts.”
Anyone else smell an inferiority complex a-brewing? For the record, ‘Carragher’ has been firmly entrenched in the top 10 Premier League ‘shirt/name sales’ standings for at least the last couple of years.
‘Diouf’…erm…hasn’t.
There’s a good deal more to get through, by the way:
“When I played at Liverpool, Carragher could have talked to me then – but he didn’t. He was jealous of me – that’s why he talked about me. Because when I came to Liverpool I earned more than him and I was a bigger name than him.
“I took my country to the World Cup and to the finals of the African Nations Cup, so Carragher can’t criticise me because, to me, he has done nothing with his life.
“I’m not going to listen to what Carragher says. I listen to the ‘big men’, the greats of football. Both said very good things about me.”
By way of contrast, since Diouf effectively left Liverpool in 2004 (he spent the entire 2004/’05 season on loan at Bolton before joining the Trotters on a permanent deal the following summer), Carragher has gotten his grubby mits on the Champions League vase (as well as a smattering of other trophies) and managed to flirt with both the Premier League and a second Champions League title.
Diouf has spent the majority of the time gobbing at various sets of supporters the length and breadth of the land, blasting corner-kicks out for throw-ins and generally cheating like a cur.
Incidentally, the ‘big men’ that El-Hadji is referring to above are Pele and Diego Maradona, who both named Diouf in their ‘top 100 players in the world’ after his France-slaying exploits at the 2002 World Cup.
What a bitch hindsight can be, eh?
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