‘Some of the things…’ – Carragher was stunned by what he saw ex-Liverpool teammate doing in training | OneFootball

Throughout his 17 years in the Liverpool first team, Jamie Carragher played alongside plenty of illustrious names.

From John Barnes and Robbie Fowler at the beginning, to Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres in the 2000s, to Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho in his later playing days, the Bootle native had no shortage of illustrious teammates.

However, it was a man who played just 56 times for the Reds who made one of the biggest impressions on the current Sky Sports pundit.

Like Carragher, David Thompson is a local lad who emerged from the academy to play for Liverpool’s first team, although he was eventually moved on by the late Gerard Houllier in 2000.

Carragher wowed by Thompson in Liverpool training

Our former no.23 told SPORTbible about the Birkenhead native: “He was actually playing for Liverpool reserves at 16, which was a big thing to do.

“He played in the Premier League and was in England squads but I think the feeling at the time was that he would go on and have a great Liverpool career and it didn’t quite happen.

Credit: Alex Livesey /Allsport

“Houllier came in and he had an injury, he didn’t quite take to him. He probably never had what the youth programme thought he would have at Liverpool.

“Some of the things I used to see him do in the Liverpool youth team – he’d chip the goalkeeper from the halfway line. He was that Gazza-type figure in the youth team but it didn’t quite happen for him in Liverpool and England.”

Thompson was eventually shown the door by Houllier

Thompson showed some flashes of brilliance for the Reds in the late 1990s, including an astonishing solo goal against Sheffield Wednesday towards the end of the decade, and he carried substantial expectations when he broke into the first team.

Unfortunately, he fell foul of Houllier on more than one occasion for reckless moments of indiscipline, infamously punching David Hopkin in a reserve match against Leeds, and the Frenchman ultimately sanctioned his exit to Coventry (lfchistory.net).

As Carragher mentioned, the midfielder – who in 2018 wildly claimed that the Reds were about to sign then-free agent Yaya Toure – was called up for England but never won a senior cap, and persistent injury problems sadly prompted his retirement at just 30 years of age.

It was a crying shame that a footballer of Thompson’s evident ability didn’t go on to have a career as prominent as his talent perhaps deserved, but not many players can say that they’ve surpassed 50 appearances for Liverpool’s first team. That is something of which he can be forever proud.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: