Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez took a hilarious dig at former England defender Jamie Carragher. Benitez hilariously revealed how much the Liverpool legend would cost in the modern-day transfer market.
During his stint as Liverpool manager, Benitez saw the Reds script an epic Champions League comeback against AC Milan in Istanbul back in 2005. Led by Steven Gerrard and his deputy Carragher, Liverpool clawed back from 3-0 down at half-time to level things up before winning on penalties in Istanbul.
While speaking on the Stick to Football podcast by Sky Bet, Benitez jokingly remarked, “If you want to buy Gerrard and Carra this time, you pay £200m. £180m for Gerrard and £20m for Carragher!”
The legendary English defender himself was present on the show along with Manchester United legend Gary Neville. Benitez’s hilarious comment left everyone present on the show in splits.
Benitez also discussed how he prepared Liverpool to fight at the top. “It’s not what you have spent in one year, it’s what you have spent already. So Chelsea has spent £300million in the last two years – in the last year before and the year that we were there. So they were much better, much better players. So it’s like when they say, ‘[Sir Alex] Ferguson has spent this or that,’ no, no,” the Spaniard said, as per Daily Mail.
“Because you have the two Nevilles [Gary and Phil], you have [Paul] Scholes, you have [Ryan] Giggs. These players were millions if you go to the market, so you have this advantage. We had Carragher and [Steven] Gerrard, that was millions also,” Benitez added.
Benitez was at the helm of affairs at Anfield for 350 games in total. He left Liverpool in 2010. The 64-year-old later went on to coach European giants like Inter Milan, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Newcastle United. He is currently not handling coaching duties of any club after being dismissed by Spanish football club Celta Vigo.
Liverpool is currently being managed by Arne Slot. The Dutch football manager started his stint at Anfield with a 2-0 victory against newly-promoted Ipswich Town in the Premier League. Diogo Jota and Mohamed Sala found the back of the net for Liverpool in that fixture against Ipswich Town.