Carragher

Steve McLaren has failed. In his bid to get Jamie Carragher to not retire, as much as the other things.

Two sides to this:

1. Carragher has handled his irritation with discretion and care; if he's not getting a game, and he disagrees with it, then he's done the right thing. Other players would have a go at the manager, he's kept his own counsel. Besides, Man Utd and Newcastle fans are incredibly glad at the decisions by Paul Scholes and Alan Shearer to retire; sitting at home with his family and resting, rather than flying to Russia and Isreal in a midweek to sit on the bench will do wonders for Carragher's fitness, and help Rafa's thin central defence back-up problem.

2. McClown has been a complete idiot yet again. Not content with the barn full of eggs on his face over dropping Beckham, then reselecting him, his constant ignorance of Jamie Carragher's form for Liverpool, even so far as selecting Ledley King ahead of him, has come back to haunt him with Tegsy out injured for the Germany game. The next England manager has to be someone with half a clue on how to manage players, not a red-faced monkey who filled out forms for Sven and The Purple One, before doing very averagely for Boro.

If it was me, I'd've gone out and slagged McClown off in the press, saying he doesn't know what he's doing, but that's not really in Carragher's character.