DEDICATED: Jamie Carragher is into his 14th season at Liverpool
THERE are two new additions to life at Liverpool which have arrived with significantly less fanfare than either Glen Johnson or Alberto Aquilani, and remain out of sight for the cluster of youngsters milling around outside the gates of the clubâs training ground.
In the foyer at Melwood there now stands a bronze bust of Bill Shankly, a typically profound quote emblazoned on the wall behind in which he declares: âWe are Liverpool.â
Further down the corridor, a glass cabinet containing the red-ribboned European Cup, won forever on that spine-tingling night in Istanbul in 2005, takes pride of place.
âThey are brilliant and a lot of credit goes to Sammy Lee for introducing them,â said Jamie Carragher. âThere is a montage round the back, too. A list of all the players who played for the club, with pictures of all the legends on the wall.
âYou come in and it gives the place a presence. The lads all pass the European Cup every day and it makes you think.
âPeople say you shouldnât look in the past â and we want to recreate that history â but we should be proud of the fact that we are one of the big names in football.â
It is the future that dominates the horizon, however.
Liverpoolâs future, Carragherâs own prospects and the fortunes of those who are not as well off as the defender, even one with 21 stitches holding together a two-inch gash sustained in the opening weekend defeat by Tottenham.
Victory over Stoke on Wednesday, which was Carragherâs 400th league appearance, has calmed the hysteria that greeted the anaemic loss at White Hart Lane.
Yet Carragher is philosophical about the unique pressures his team-mates â chumps one minute, potential champs the next â face.
âI would hate to be at a club where it didnât matter, where there wasnât that pressure to win,â he said, his 14th season as a Liverpool player underway.
âI wouldnât say there is no point playing in those circumstances but at least you know you are playing for a proper team here.
âThere should be questions asked if we go a season without a trophy, never mind three. At big clubs there are questions asked and rightly so.
âThe title race will be open. Manchester United have lost Cristiano Ronaldo and hopefully Fernando Torres will be fit all season for us. You never write off someone as good as Arsene Wenger. Cesc Fabregas was injured a bit last season, but Andrey Arshavin looks a top player and Theo Walcott will benefit from another yearâs experience. Eduardo? What a player he looks.
âThere are a few clubs who have got more money than us. Real Madrid, United, Chelsea and obviously Manchester City have come on the scene. I still think City would like a lot more of our players.â
If his mind is forever in a constant whirl about football, then Carragherâs interests have expanded as he has matured. He owns a restaurant
and is in the process of setting up the 23 Foundation (taking its name from his shirt number) which will
plough
the proceeds from a richly deserved testimonial, tentatively pencilled in for next summer, into good causes across Merseyside.
Carragherâs enthusiasm for the venture reflects that normally reserved for a bone-shuddering challenge.
âFor argumentâs sake, if we make ÂŁ1million from the game then rather than give it to a charity, the money from that will go into a foundation and the interest every year builds up,â he said. âIt would be for kids in the local area in Liverpool.
âIt might be that a youth club needs a snooker table or a boxing gym needs equipment. I was thinking a sick kid might need an operation, so you pay for that.
âI want to try to make enough so that I could give ÂŁ100,000 a year away, forever. That is the type of figure I am thinking of.
âHopefully, the game can be next summer. I have less than two years to go on my contract so you never know whatâs going to happen. I might be replaced, the manager might want to sell me, I might want to leave.â
Rafa Benitez has just added to his centre-back options by completing a ÂŁ2million deal for Sotirios Kyrgiakos.
Still life without Carragher remains unthinkable, and yet his is a career driven by a sense of insecurity.
Before pre-season training had started, he was boxing with his brothers in the gym and generally trying to steal a march on his defensive rivals.
âThe reason I am that type of player is fear really. Itâs fear of losing my place,â he said candidly.
âI know it sounds stupid to some people but I never feel like I have cemented my place, that it can all be taken away from me very quickly.
âI always try to do something different each summer to try to get that extra couple of per cent. I went boxing, Iâve always eaten well and now I eat to the absolute maximum.
âWe are all getting older, but another way of looking at it is Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel are getting more experienced which is going to help them.
âThey are coming into the prime of their careers. I am not stupid. I am 32 in January. It will happen one day.â
Does he think about that? âYes, I think about it quite a bit. I donât want to lose my place.
âI have no time for that resting stuff. Strikers and wingers may need it every now and then, but not defenders.
âThere will be a time when someone takes my place but not because of resting. They will just take my place.â
If Carragher has his way, it will not be any time soon. âIâm this type of player because I fear losing my placeâ
He's planning a testimonial for next summer, I would love to be able to go to that. Fingers crossed for getting tickets to that and a friendly.
The "23 Foundation" sound's like a great idea, annually using the ÂŁ100,000 interest from the 1 million pounds he hopes to earn from his testimonial
for the lads n lasses of Liverpool. Good Lad.