"And the players?" Jones said.
Carragher blew out his cheeks. "Carried. Half that team was carried. The country wanted a golden generation and when a team of nobodies came at them head-on and fought, they hid. That's the truth and the fans know it."
"The plan let some of them down, Jamie," Henry said. "Do not put on the players what belongs on the men above them. Kane had one chance and his manager had already taken the game away from him by then." He shrugged.
"But yes. On the night, they were second best to a squad that on paper should not be able to lace their boots. That will take some of them years to get over. Some of them never will."
Jones turned to the camera, and I knew what was coming because they always do it at the end.
"So the last word. He's from Manchester. He's got a World Cup final in 5 days. What do we call a manager who does what he just did with what he just had?"
And Carragher, who had been quiet, came alive.
