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Jamie Carragher retires: Tribute by ADRIAN DURHAM: The day we locked horns on talkSPORT over England

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THE ADRIAN DURHAM COLUMN

Read more explosive opinion from Adrian Durham every Tuesday on MailOnline...

The news that Jamie Carragher has decided to retire at the end of the season gave me mixed feelings. Back in July 2007 the same player quit international football, and that’s something that always fires me up because I’m a passionate England fan.

So I started the Drive show on talkSPORT by saying Carragher had bottled it. I was serious – the England manager had set Carragher a challenge to get back in the England team, and the player had turned down that challenge. I saw a player bottling a very big challenge.

The phone lines went crazy with people angry I was using the word 'bottler' to describe a whole-hearted, passionate and very good player. Unknown to me, Carragher himself had tuned in, and was, according to his autobiography, 'livid'. 

Scroll down to listen to Carra's rant live on the air...

Sparks flew: Adrian Durham called Jamie Carragher a 'bottler' for quitting international football in 2007 - he later returned to England duty after answering Fabio Capello's call for the 2010 World Cup (above)

Carragher's last England cap before retiring for the first time came against Brazil at Wembley

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He called in and spoke to fellow scouser Mick Quinn, my co-presenter on the show that day. Quinny told him he could come on the show and state his case, but only if he stopped swearing! And so I was faced with confronting the man I was calling a bottler. I was a little nervous, but was prepared to stand by what I was saying.

Carragher came on all guns blazing, he challenged me to head to Liverpool's training ground to say it face-to-face, he even advised me to bring some boxing gloves. We argued about his international retirement and in the end we agreed to disagree.

The story after that call isn’t so well known, but it showed what a class act Carragher is.

I decided to head to Liverpool to front up. So a few months after that call, talkSPORT organised for me and Quinny to present the Drive show from Carragher’s bar in the middle of Liverpool. 

We started the show and a few minutes had gone by when Jamie walked in and threw a shopping bag at me. In it was a signed England shirt that he had worn at the 2006 World Cup.

In return I handed over a framed picture of him left on the Wembley turf after being skinned by Ronaldinho. He saw the joke and hung it up in his bar.

We shook hands, he joined the show for over an hour, taking calls from listeners, and was top quality.

After that he sent me tickets to Liverpool v Aston Villa, and we have stayed in touch. We even arranged to present a series of phone-in shows together during the 2010 World Cup.

But late one Friday night, six weeks before the tournament in South Africa kicked off, I took a call from a very apologetic Carragher, disappointed he had to pull out of the shows.

I asked why, and he sheepishly said Capello had picked him and he had decided to come out of international retirement. All the grief  I took for calling him a bottler and he was back!

Hell hath no fury: Carragher called talkSPORT to have it out with Durham... much to his surprise

I don’t regret what I said, although having seen Carragher with his family after a Liverpool game, while some of the other Liverpool lads had to go off on international duty, I understand why he’d rather do that than sit on a bench in Kazakhstan.

I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for calling him a bottler with so many people listening, but I can honestly say Jamie Carragher is as classy off the field as he is on it. 

AUDIO: Cross Carra at your peril!

  More... Carragher announces retirement plans - Liverpool icon to quit at end of the season Farewell to a Liverpool legend, the man who had the Kop dreaming of a 'Team of Carraghers'. Now his No 23 shirt should follow him into retirement As Carragher retires, he joins Finney, Lofthouse, Adams and Giggs on the list of loyal one-club legends Carragher exclusive: What he really thinks of Fergie, Neville and United



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