Jamie Carragher has managed to become a well-respected pundit by many, getting past his Liverpool bias to fairly comment on Premier League matches for Sky Sports.
However, the former Anfield favourite may have let his feelings for the Merseyside club get the better of him when he was recently asked to name an XI created from the best players he has ever played alongside.
Speaking on Jan Aage Fjortoft's PodSaveTheBall podcast, Carragher was unable to find space in the team for England teammates Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, and Paul Scholes - despite the trio being widely regarded as some of the best players to ever feature in the Premier League.
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He even picked one player who he only played alongside once instead of any of those three!
Check out his selection and explanations below.
GK: David Seaman
"The best Liverpool goalkeeper I played with was Pepe Reina. And I would
say, England wise, I did play with David Seaman on my debut."
RB: Gary Neville
"I'll have to go for Neville, won't I? How can I pick a team and not put
Gary Neville in? Hopefully, we can take that partnership that we've got
on tv onto the pitch. Don't tell him that."
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LB: Ashley Cole
"He was fantastic, he really was."
CB: Sami Hyypia
"I played with Rio and John Terry who are great players. But I played
that long with Sami and he was my best partner as a player."
CB: Jamie Carragher
Fjortoft had Carragher pick himself in the team.
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CM: Xabi Alonso
"He can sit in there spraying the passes, Stevie can get forward. It
didn't work in the first half of Istanbul but we'll forget about that. I
cannot not put Alonso in there for what he's done in his career - World
Cups, Euros obviously the Champions League at Liverpool and played for
Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. People always talk about Stevie being
Liverpool manager one day, and I'm sure that'll happen, but I think
there's a chance Xabi Alonso will be a really top manager as well. With
the managers he's had and his football brain so I think that will be
something to look for in the future."
CM: Steven Gerrard
"His biggest strength was that he had no weakness. There was nothing he
couldn't do. He could play in any position. The greatest English player
of my generation."
RM: David Beckham
"I think he's a very underrated player. He was a great player. I think
in his prime at Manchester United from 1998-2001 before he left for Real
Madrid, he and Luis Figo were the top right-sided players in European
football. I think his celebrity status makes people forgot how good he
actually was."
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LM: John Barnes
"We didn't really have a left-sided player at England - we didn't have
one at Liverpool, to be honest. I might be cheating a little bit but I
played with John Barnes for one game - in my second game for Liverpool.
He's remembered for being one of the best left wingers there's ever been
in British football and one of the greatest players to have ever played
for Liverpool."
FW: Luis Suarez
"Not just what he did at Liverpool but his whole career and what he did
at Barcelona and for Uruguay as well. He's a special player."
FW: Michael Owen
"Because of the goals he got in the FA Cup Final for us in 2001. He won
the Ballon d'Or in 2001 and he played a huge part in a really successful
season for us in 2001 under Gerard Houllier. He was the best striker in
that team and all the goals he got for England. I think he's a player
you forget how good he was when he was in his prime."
How do you reckon this side would do?
Topics: Liverpool, John Barnes, Football News, Chelsea, Football, Manchester United, David Beckham, Luis Suarez, Xabi Alonso, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Gary Neville, Ashley Cole, Jamie Carragher