Rangers could have had an entirely different look to their defence when they were fighting their way back up the SPFL ladder after an exclusive from former manager, Ally McCoist, on Talksport.
The Gers legend endured a difficult time – to say the least – when he was in the Ibrox hot-seat but it could have been made easier if he had managed to get a sizeable transfer coup across the line.
McCoist revealed that Jamie Carragher had been targeted when he was leaving Liverpool in 2013, the centre-half finishing his playing days as a one club man starting and finishing his whole career at Anfield, retiring for an now successful media career.
Finally I’ve found out another club did want to sign me, & thought I was half decent!!!!!!! https://t.co/WF3ymHytKT
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) November 10, 2020
When asked about the Sky Sports pundit’s status amongst Premier League greats, he said:
“I tried to sign him, believe it or not, when he was leaving Liverpool.
“I phoned Gary McAllister and tried to get him, but obviously he was going into the media circles and is doing very well at that.
“I’m not sure he was underrated, for me, as he was a top player. I know what you are saying that in some quarters he’s not given the credit he deserves, but certainly not in my case.
“I thought he was a top player. At that particular time England had some fantastic centre-backs in John Terry and Rio Ferdinand and boys like that.
“You automatically think of the two boys I’ve mentioned, Terry and Ferdinand, so he might not make too many top tens in some people’s eyes. But that doesn’t make him not a top player.
“It probably highlights the players he was competing against at that time.”
That’s two days in a row now McCoist has dropped in little nuggets of Rangers related gossip having also mentioned that he was speaking to a Southampton scout at Ibrox at the weekend but to claim that he personally had enquired about Carragher is as direct from the horses mouth as you can get.
We were hardly blessed with competent centre-halves during Ally’s tenure in the lower leagues, names like Emerson Cribari and Bilel Mohsni still send shivers down the spines of Gers fans, and that’s before we get to the point of squeezing Lee McCulloch in there to give him a game after his legs went.
One thing’s for sure, Carragher wouldn’t have accepted the standards that were allowed to pass on a daily basis at Auchenhowie or on a Saturday from some of those wearing Light Blue – maybe McCoist should’ve tried a little bit harder, who knows, we could have had his mate join us too, you know the one, midfielder, captained England…wonder where he is now…?