Jamie Carragher delighted to be proven wrong after giving up hope on Liverpool Premier League title win 10 years ago

Liverpool great felt the departure of Xabi Alonso was the last straw in ending Liverpool’s chances of regaining the title, only for Klopp to rebuild the team into a squad of Premier League conquerors

Jamie Carragher has expressed his delight at being proven wrong by Jurgen Klopp, 10 years after “giving up hope” on seeing Liverpool lift the Premier League trophy.

Carragher retired before Klopp arrived at Anfield, having seen the club extend its title drought beyond 20 years as an apparent endless wait went on.

Having seen Rafa Benitez’s Champions League-winning side start of 2005 disband, Carragher was starting to fear that he would never live to see the club clinch the the Premier League title, with the sale of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid a decade ago proving a decisive move in killing off any optimism that he had left.

The struggles continued beyond Benitez, with Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish failing to make any progress, and Carragher retired in 2013 before Brendan Rodgers steered the club to the near-miss of 2013/14, when they had to make do with a second-placed finish.

By now, Carragher had accepted that with another reconstruction well underway, the joy of seeing his career-club win the title would never come, even when Jurgen Klopp arrived in October 2015 and vowed to change history.

“Jurgen Klopp arrived at Anfield saying he wanted to turn doubters into believers,” Carragher recalled, writing for The Telegraph.

“I was one of those who had given up hope on Liverpool winning the Premier League.

“It was shortly after my last meaningful title bid in 2009 that I started to lose my faith. The 2010 season was awful. Xabi Alonso had been sold to Real Madrid, Rafa Benitez's team was unraveling, and the club was braced for another period of reconstruction.

“Reluctantly, I faced up to the disheartening conclusion a championship victory parade would never happen.”

Klopp gac a tearful interview after Liverpool were crowned champions (Sky Sports)

Carragher was part of Thursday night’s celebrations, with the former England international jubilant as he featured on Sky Sports’ coverage of the celebrations by interviewing Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson - with neither able to contain their happiness.

However, perhaps the most memorable moment of the night was Klopp’s tearful interview in which the emotion of what the club had achieved came pouring out of the normally-composed manager, and Carragher praised the German for proving him wrong after 10 long years.

“It gives me the greatest pleasure to admit these words now look misjudged,” he added. “In my defence, aside from the most optimistic fans judging with heart above head, no one took me to task for the remarks at the time.”