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Jamie Carragher Believes He Could Have Won A Premier League Title If Liverpool Did Not Sign Three 'Failures'

Jamie Carragher Believes He Could Have Won A Premier League Title If Liverpool Did Not Sign Three 'Failures'

Liverpool finished second in the 2001-02 season, but Jamie Carragher said that his former side "went backwards" in the following campaign.

Jamie Carragher has suggested that he could have lifted the Premier League title with Liverpool if the Reds had not signed three “failures” in the transfer window.

The 43-year-old Liverpool legend spent his entire club career at Anfield and captured a Champions League, UEFA Cup, two FA Cups and three League Cups with the Reds.

Carragher, who made 737 appearances for Liverpool, failed to secure a Premier League winners’ medal before his retirement in 2013.

Liverpool fell short of lifting the Premier League title in the 2001-02 season, with Arsenal finishing ahead of the Reds by seven points in the table.

The Reds, who were managed by Gerard Houllier at the time, failed to build momentum in the following campaign and slumped to a fifth-placed finish.

Liverpool had signed El Hadji Diouf from Lens, Salif Diao from Sedan and Bruno Cheyrou from Lille in the summer ahead of the 2002-03 season.

PA

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And Carragher believes that the aforementioned trio “were all failures” and felt that Liverpool “went backwards” after their title challenge a season earlier.

“It’s well documented that we didn’t win a league title during my time at the club, so I think a lot of managers will look back at signings that didn’t quite get Liverpool over the line when I played,” he told Sky Sports.

“With Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez, we got so close to the title, and then we’d think we are one or two signings away, and those singings never quite worked.

PA

“I always think of the effect of what [Virgil] Van Dijk has had at Liverpool, Mo Salah or Alisson -- Jurgen Klopp had got the team so close, a Champions League final and then so close with City in the title race, but he needed those signings to get him over the line, and they worked.

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“We finished second in 2001-02, and on the back of the 2002 World Cup -- we bought three players that summer [Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou] and they were all failures. The team didn’t work and it went backwards.

“The same happened in 2009 with Rafa Benitez -- we came to Old Trafford and won 4-1, really pushed United close, finished second and then in the summer we lost Xabi Alonso and bought Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson.

“It’s not just about pointing the fingers at the players who came in because the players already at the club needed to perform, but you just think: ‘If these signings had worked, would that have made a big difference?’ That’s where I think we fell down.”

Featured Image Credit: PA/Sky Sports

Topics: Jamie Carragher, Liverpool, Premier League, England, Football