Fuming Newcastle fans turn on Jamie Carragher after he claims Everton are a bigger club than Toon
NEWCASTLE UNITED fans turned on Jamie Carragher after he claimed Everton were a bigger club than them.
The Sky Sports pundit made the remark after watching the club he supported as a boy lose the Merseyside Derby 2-0 at Liverpool on Sunday.
That result left Frank Lampard’s team two points off safety in the relegation zone with just six games of the season remaining.
Assessing the prospect of Everton suffering relegation for the first time since 1951, Carragher said: “I think if Everton go down, Everton will become a template for every other owner and club in the Premier League of how not to do it.
“To spend that much money and find themselves going down… I don’t know, I’m trying to think of other clubs that have gone down in the Premier League – has there been a bigger club than Everton to go down?
“You are talking about one of the biggest football clubs. You are talking about only six teams that have been ever-present in the Premier League.”
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At that point his fellow pundit and former Newcastle manager Graeme Souness suggested the Magpies were just as big as Everton.
Carragher replied: “No, I don’t think so.”
His comments quickly sparked a fierce backlash from the Geordie faithful, with one responding on Twitter: “@Carra23’s comments are bizarre – what’s he basing it on?”
However, the ex-Liverpool star explained his reasoning by replying: “That in my lifetime Everton have never gone down & have won trophies. Newcastle are the opposite.”
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But the flak continued, with one reply asking: “Man City went down. Are they not a ‘big club’? What about Forest – they won trophies. Are Everton bigger than them, then?”
Another wrote: “Carragher just claimed Newcastle aren’t as big a club as Everton, personally I’d say they are bigger.”
While another said: “In the Premier Lge era Newcastle have done more than Everton i.e. challenging for league and playing champions league so for me Newcastle are bigger than Everton.”
As a fellow fan asked: “Have Everton been in the Champions League?”