Ryan Christie reveals Jamie Carragher rave review blew his phone up – 'Can everyone stop f***ing texting me?!'
Jamie Carragher was waxing lyrical about him on Monday Night Football.
A full four minutes and 11 seconds clip dedicated to one of the best midfielders in the Premier League right now. No one in England’s top flight has won possession for his team more than he has this season. But while Carragher and former World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit eulogise him – Ryan Christie is completely oblivious.
At home, he’s trying to get his baby son, Leo, to sleep. But his phone is pinging with the same regularity as he pops passes around the pitch. Why is John McGinn texting him? And the messages keep coming from pals, team-mates, whoever. was trying to settle the wee man because he wasn’t sleeping,” he said. “McGinn was the first one to text me! I had no idea what he was talking about. Then three or four other boys messaged saying, ‘You must be happy with that’?
“At the time, I was just thinking, ‘Can everyone stop f***ing texting me right now’! I didn’t know what was going on.”
Later, Christie twigged and watched the Sky TV clip where he was rightly being lauded by Carragher & Co. as the driving force behind AFC Bournemouth’s incredible campaign. But this isn’t just about another Scot performing well south of the border.
Christie’s progression and development under Spanish coach Andoni Iraola has been transformational. At 29, he’s no longer a wafer-thin winger or luxury No.10. He’s a tenacious, ball-winning No.8 who is going toe-to-toe with the best midfielders in the world.
He’s the fulcrum of a Bournemouth side that are defying the odds and heading for Europe. In their remarkable 4-1 away victory over Newcastle last month, Christie was a phenomenon. And Carragher – Sky Sports’ top pundit – agreed.
The Scot’s NINE tackles in the game were the joint most by any midfielder in the Premier League this term. His dad Charlie would have been impressed with that stat.
“He likes it,” said Ryan. “Something similar happened to him in his career, so he can relate to it a bit. When I was younger, he wanted me to throw myself into tackles and I was dipping my toe in. I think he’s a bit happier now, seeing me getting yellow cards.”
So how has this happened? Clearly, Iraola is at the heart of it. On the pitch, this is a new Christie. But off it, thankfully, you get the impression that, no matter how many plaudits he gets, this humble Invernesian will never change.
In an exclusive interview with Record Sport, he talked about how this positional switch came about. He said: “It’s funny how you’re pigeon-holed. My mindset going into games now is totally different.
“I used to just think: Score or assist. Now I think: Break up play, get my tackles in. That’s something I never thought I’d say.
“It’s been an incredible shift for me, quite strange really. I never expected it. But it suits me, especially as I’m getting older.
“I’ve a bit more experience now so I can definitely read the game better, which helps in the middle of the park. And going the other way, I’ve probably lost a yard of pace – so I can’t take on a full-back like I used to!
“We were in pre-season and the manager was just in the door. We were doing loads of drills towards how he wanted to play and how we’d press as a team.
“I always started myself on the right wing, without even being told to. But one day during a drill, he said, ‘right Ryan, you go into the eight’.
“I looked at him and said, ‘Oh right, OK’. He asked me, ‘do you think you can play there’? He was a new manager so I was just nodding my head to whatever he was asking me! I’d have agreed to go in goal at that point. I said yes and haven’t looked back.”
Iraola has been a revelation since arriving at the Dorset club from Rayo Vallecano in 2023. He’s got the Cherries challenging for the Champions League spots.
They’ve beaten Arsenal, Manchester City, Spurs and Nottingham Forest at home, while battering Newcastle and Manchester United on the road. Given the job he’s done, far bigger clubs will have taken note. What price on the Spaniard to replace his countryman Pep Guardiola one day at Manchester City?
Christie certainly wouldn’t rule it out and detailed what makes his gaffer special. He said: “He’s a top manager. Definitely one of the best I’ve worked with.
“It’s the little things. I’m not sure if it’s cultural but, compared to the British managers I’ve had before, he’s so emotionless.
“There could be a last-minute penalty against us and it doesn’t affect him. He always just brings it back to, what can we change tactically to get the best out of ourselves?
“We went to Newcastle and got an incredible result but on Monday he was just back to work on the next one. It was as if the Newcastle result didn’t happen. So he’s good at keeping you on the baseline. That approach has helped us, especially in getting results against the top teams.
“It NEVER crosses his mind to sit off an opposition team. Not once. The better the team, the more inclined he is to go and really test them – to see if they can play out from the back against us.
“That has fed into the players and we’ve now got a fearless feeling within us now. When we go anywhere, or when any team comes to our place, we feel we can give them a game.
“In terms of the influence he’s had on me as a player? He’s up there with the biggest in my career. He’s certainly number one in terms of making me enjoy my football a lot more than I’ve done in the past.
“And also, just how simple he’s made it. People talk about how tough the Premier League is. But he’s given me confidence going into every game that makes me believe – personally and as a team – that we can perform.”
Christie is performing better than he’s ever done. If there were cynics who questioned his move from Celtic to Bournemouth four years ago, he has surely justified that decision?
And no one is more pleased to see a Scottish guy bossing it in the Premier League than the man himself. He said: “One of the reasons I moved down here was to test myself in this league.
“Just playing in it regularly is great for me. It gives me a sense of self-satisfaction that I can mix it with these boys. And secondly, from a more patriotic point of view, I like putting Scotland in the picture.
“I still think we get a hard rep as a nation for footballers down here. You look at McGinn and Andy Robertson, who have been unbelievable over so many years. I like the fact that hopefully I’m adding to that and people are giving us a bit of credit.”
Where Christie is concerned, Carragher won’t be the last to do that.
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