Bent makes Liverpool claim
Darren Bent scored 24 goals in the Premier League in his first season at Sunderland and, talking to Talksport, that form prompted Jamie Carragher to bring up the possibility of Bent joining the defender at Anfield.
Bent explained that at the end of the 2009-10 season, the then Liverpool defender got in touch to say that it would be good if the striker signed for Liverpool due to how he had performed in his debut season at the Stadium of Light:
There was one particular time; I’d just finished my first season for Sunderland and it had gone really well.
Jamie Carragher had a conversation about coming to Liverpool.
It wasn’t a conversation like, ‘we need to get you there’, it was kind of like, ‘it would be good if you came, you did really well in your first season, you’re probably a little bit too expensive for us’.
I was like, ‘bloody hell!’. It’s Liverpool Football Club, you’ve got to jump at the chance.
I ended up staying at Sunderland, I didn’t go anywhere. Maybe Benitez didn’t see eye-to-eye with Carragher in the signing!
That’s usually what happens.
Although following Bent’s claim, Carragher himself took to Twitter to claim that he was actually told to ask the question by then Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez:
Rafa asked me to ask him!
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) November 17, 2020
I’m no Michael Edwards!!
Gardner joins Wednesday
Just two days after leaving his position as first team coach at his boyhood club Birmingham City, former Sunderland midfielder Craig Gardner has joined the coaching staff at Sheffield Wednesday.
Gardner retired from playing at the end of last season and at the time was joint-caretaker manager following the departure of Pep Clotet but had stepped back into a coaching role with the first team after Aitor Karanka was appointed City’s manager at the end of July.
Following Tony Pulis being named manager at Hillsborough, Gardner was the first appointment to the ex-Stoke manager’s coaching team and Gardner told Wednesday’s official YouTube channel that he cannot wait to get started:
It is a massive club and an opportunity to work with Tone again.
It is a good opportunity to get this club going again. We need to get that positivity back and get some results and climb up the league.
I was a player under him at WBA and I know the way he works and gets everyone together...the players, the staff, the club and the fans and I think that is what this club needs at the minute.
It needs that togetherness and everyone together and just watch us climb.
The way he treats people, it doesn’t matter whether you are a player or a coach...he gets everyone together. It’s like one big family.
This is a massive club with a great future, I can’t wait to get started.