Jamie Carragher has revealed that he decided not to go into management after seeing the effect it had on former Liverpool bosses Rafael Benitez and Gerard Houllier.
The former Reds centre-back, who made over 700 appearances for the Merseyside club, has become a successful pundit for Sky Sports since his retirement in 2013.
However, the 41-year-old has resisted the temptation to follow some of his colleagues into coaching, such as ex-Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard and fellow Sky analyst Gary Neville.
Former Reds captain is currently manager of Rangers in Scotland while former Manchester United right-back Neville had a brief spell in charge of Spanish club Valencia.
(Image: PA)
But Carragher admitted that he has little interest in performing the same role after seeing two of his former managers at Anfield become “broken” by the job.
“The two biggest managers for me in my career were Gerard Houllier for six years and Rafa Benitez for six years,” Carragher told the Football, Feminism and Everything in Between podcast , which comes out on Wednesday morning.
“So for 12 years of my career there were those two managers, the two biggest influences on me, love them, great respect for them, but I always say the man who came into Liverpool, who I was so impressed with, was not the man who left.
“The job had killed them, it had broken them, they were different men, paranoid at the end, doing strange decisions.
(Image: Action Images)
“Things they would come with in the press, you were sat at home thinking ‘Oh my God, no’.”
Before leaving the club in 2004, Houllier won six pieces of silverware with Liverpool, including an FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup treble in the 2000-01 season.
However, the Frenchman was also forced to spend five months away from the dugout after being diagnosed with a heart condition in October 2001.
Meanwhile Benitez, who now manages Premier League side Newcastle , led the Reds to Champions League and FA Cup triumphs in his first two years at Anfield but left the club in 2010 after finishing seventh in the league.
(Image: Stu Forster/Getty)
“You know they’re just not the same person, and I just think it’s what the job does to them,” Carragher added.
“I think a lot of managers become bitter, and then they get the love for the game, they go back into being a manager, have a year or two out, but towards the end when things aren’t going well you just see a bitterness.
“I was a very intense player, and football can take you to places but it can also take you to dark places.”
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Jamie Carragher reveals why he decided not to go into management - Mirror Online
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