Hearing this week that Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher will be retiring at the end of the season after more than 700 appearances for his only club got me thinking about the loyalty — or lack of it — in English football these days.Few players in the modern era play as many games for one club, and while Carragher, who just turned 35, could still play for another couple of years he realises his opportunities are few at Anfield and rather than play for another club he has taken the decision to end his career as a one-club player. His club captain Steven Gerrard is another player who is Liverpool through and through, having played over 400 games for the club and more than 250 as captain. Indications are he, too, will end his career at Anfield.Two other loyal servants are the Manchester United pair Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs who have played for United more than 700 times in the case of Scholes and over 900 for Giggs. That kind of loyalty is uncommon these days but in my time at West Ham I had three teammates — Billy Bonds (804 appearances), Frank Pampard (674), Trevor Brooking (647) and Bobby Moore (646) — who showed you the true meaning of the word loyalty.Today it has a lot to with money, you have agents now and everybody wants to make a quick buck. I do understand in football that your career is very short and you do want to accumulate as much as you can, but it is nice to see people like Scholes, Giggs and Carragher who have been loyal servants to one club only and that’s a fantastic tribute to them. It tells you the character of the individual, that they are not motivated by the dollar.The fact that Carragher doesn’t want to play for anybody else is understandable. He’s from Liverpool, he’s passionate about Liverpool and they have been a part of his life since he was a young boy and he doesn’t want to be at any other club. That’s how I felt when it was time for me to finish at West Ham, I didn’t want to play for anybody else in England because that’s where my heart was.I had lots of offers from other clubs but at that time the club held the upper hand and you didn’t have what we call freedom of contract where a player can leave on a free transfer at the end of his contract. The clubs that came in for me, manager Ron Greenwood turned them down and that is understandable because you want to hold on to what you’ve got. I had all the big clubs interested, Man United, Chelsea, Spurs, Man City when Malcolm Allison was alive, Liverpool, everybody came in for me but he wouldn’t let me go and I understand that.That was in my early years when I was playing well and everybody wants you when you are playing well. At the time we were doing well and he turned the offers down. You can be ambitious at one club, it just depends on what quality of players they bring in. It depends on where the club wants to go and what ambition they have. If you go back in history all the top clubs started out as non-league clubs, but if you look at them today they are some of your most glamorous clubs.One of them is Manchester United and everybody wants to play at Manchester United because they are world renowned. But there are other clubs out there who do well like the Chelseas, because they have money, and Liverpool who will always be up there as well as clubs like Spurs.One player in England who could become the next big name move is Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke who has already scored 14 goals this season since his £8 million move from Genk. When you look at the Belgium set-up they have some fantastic players playing in the English Premier League and he is one of them. You can look for him to move on, but it will depend on whether Villa stay up or go down.He is a fantastic player and every game I see him he seems to ooze confidence and is playing very well. The good thing about him is he is very young, 22, and will get what he deserves if he keeps improving. You have to keep improving all the time. A lot of the young players coming from the continent have so much confidence playing the game and that’s very good.If Villa go down then somebody will be at the door knocking for him. Apparently Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are already showing interest. I think he’s a great talent but I hope he doesn’t do too well this weekend as Villa are playing my boys at Villa Park.