What a player he was. It's rare that one player can provide so many memories and change so many games. The goal in the FA Cup final, against West Ham is my favourite - the final was all but lost and he hit that shot from such a ridiculous range. The sheer audacity to take that shot, the bottle and the technique required ... sums him up completely.
Yes I am glad its over but sorry it is too. Our greatest player imo, part of 2001 and 2005 and like liddell of the times well before I recall stayed at the club through thin tines too. In the words of the great man... he made the people happy. Isn't that the best legacy of all?
gerrard quotes next: It's too easy to blame other people in football. Steven Gerrard In football, the hero and legend status is given out far too easily for me. Steven Gerrard It was difficult knowing one of your cousins had lost his life. Steven Gerrard I'm born in Liverpool, I'm a Liverpool supporter. Steven Gerrard When I leave the car park at Melwood, I try and become a completely different person. I try to get away from it. You have got to. Otherwise you end up like Jamie Carragher - obsessed! Steven Gerrard
“He is undoubtedly one of the best midfield please log in to view this image players in the world.” – Carlo Ancelotti “I think of him as being at the same level as Pirlo. Vision, technique, but he is powerful as well. Stevie can do anything. It’s going to be very difficult to find another player like him in the future.” - Mario Balotelli “He’s a fantastic statesman; he has been unbelievably successful with this football club please log in to view this image with what he’s done, the amount of games he has pulled out the mire, and the general way he conducts himself.” – Kenny Dalglish “He has become the most influential player in England, bar none. Not that Vieira lacks anything, but Gerrard does more.” – Sir Alex Ferguson “I’d have to say Steven Gerrard has been the biggest influence in my career please log in to view this image so far. I watched him when I was younger and then to go and play and train with him every day is massive for me, and still is now.” – Jordan Henderson “I can’t think of a striker in the world who has scored so many important goals, never mind a midfielder.” – Thierry Henry
“I heard what Alex Ferguson said about him being better than me. He’s probably right.” – Patrick Vieira “Is he the best in the world? He might not get the attention of Messi and Ronaldo please log in to view this image but yes, I think he just might be.” – Zinedine Zidane
The 10 goals he scored in the last 2 games of the 2014/15 season, Man Utd lost both their games and we overtook them on goal difference.
Chelsea bid record £32m for Gerrard Football Liverpool offer new deal but captain looks set to leave Chelsea last night tabled a British-record bid of £32m for Steven Gerrard in an attempt to prise the Liverpool captain from Anfield, leaving the England midfielder facing the biggest dilemma of his career. A chaotic day of bitter stand-offs and rushed attempts at reconciliation on Merseyside ended with Gerrard, accompanied by his representative Struan Marshall, back in talks with the Liverpool hierarchy at Melwood. The chairman David Moores and the chief executive Rick Parry departed a scheduled board meeting at Anfield to convene at the training ground after the players' second session of the day, in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the 25-year-old to stay. Their offer, now put to the player and his agent, constitutes a two-year contract extension running to 2009 on improved terms of £100,000 a week, the deal Gerrard had been seeking when talks began last Wednesday. The player was thinking over their proposal last night but the initial apparent indifference to settle his long-term future has damaged relations between club and captain. Liverpool are privately pessimistic about their prospects of persuading the player to stay and Gerrard now has a straight, if agonising, choice to make. He can either climb down from his decision to break off negotiations for good, confirmed in conversation with Rafael Benítez at the weekend, or he can maintain his hardline stance and actively seek a passage away from the club he has supported since his youth and joined as an eight-year-old. Chelsea's offer, which could rise to as much as £35m depending on future honours, crystallises Jose Mourinho's long-standing interest in the England international, which first surfaced last summer, and is designed to deflect similar interest from Real Madrid. If the bid is accepted, it would eclipse the British record of £29.1m paid by Manchester United to Leeds for Rio Ferdinand in 2002. Chelsea will not feel they have secured their man just yet, having already missed out on lavish targets such as Internazionale's Adriano, Andriy Shevchenko of Milan and Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o this summer. They will also recall Gerrard's decision to reject their £125,000-a-week offer last summer. But their chances of finally signing the player have improved dramatically over the past few days. Gerrard's frustration at the delay in beginning meaningful contract talks with Liverpool in the wake of the Champions League final in May prompted him to call off discussions on Saturday after only one meeting, with those in his camp privately insistent that his stance would not mellow. He departed training yesterday in his black people carrier without a comment or even an autograph for the gaggle of supporters waiting at the gates, having discussed the situation with Benítez. The Spaniard reassured him that there is no desire to offload their most saleable asset in an attempt to raise transfer funds and that the player remains integral to his plans. As if to reiterate as much, Benítez used yesterday's press conference - designed primarily to introduce the Holland international Boudewijn Zenden, who has completed his free transfer from Middlesbrough - to stress that he is eager to retain his captain's services. Yet his frustration that talks had been fractured was clear during a vaguely surreal outburst that culminated in him stating that he hoped Gerrard would join the club's coaching staff in the future. "We tried three times last season to talk with Steve about the future and a new deal and he said that we needed to wait," said Benítez. "So we waited. Then people said it was about whether we could win trophies here and we won the most important trophy in the world [the Champions League]. So they said we needed to improve the squad and now we are. We are signing José Reina, the best goalkeeper in Spain; Mark González, the best player in Chile; and Antonio Barragan, a very promising right-back. "I can assure you that we want Steven to stay with us for the next maybe eight years. If I renew my deal and stay here for four more years, I would like to see Steve as assistant manager or a chief scout or as a manager when I go. The fans need to understand that the club, the board, the chief executive and myself want him to stay. "He is the first player we have spoken to who has two years left on his contract. We spoke to other players before that because they were out of contract. But Rick Parry and myself have done the right things at the right moment. We are trying to do the right things for the club. That means we all want Steven to stay with us." Benítez hopes to add more players to his squad, with the Southampton manager Harry Redknapp confirming yesterday that his England striker Peter Crouch, for whom Liverpool had a £5m bid turned down last month, has indicated his desire to move to Anfield. Yet the focus remains on Gerrard, with Liverpool's Champions League qualifying tie against Total Network Solutions in eight days' time acting as a deadline to conclude either contract talks or the midfielder's sale. Britain's top 10 transfers £28.25m Rio Ferdinand Leeds Utd to Man Utd, Jul 2002 £28.1m Juan Sebastian Veron Lazio to Man Utd, Jul 2001 £24m Didier Drogba Marseille to Chelsea, Jul 2004 £20m Wayne Rooney Everton to Manchester Utd, Aug 2004 £19.85m Ricardo Carvalho Porto to Chelsea, Jul 2004 £19m Ruud van Nistelrooy PSV to Man Utd, Apr 2001 £18m Rio Ferdinand West Ham to Leeds Utd, Nov 2000 £17m Damien Duff Blackburn Rovers to Chelsea, Jul 2003 £16.8m Hernan Crespo Internazionale to Chelsea, Aug 2003 £16.6m Claude Makelele Real Madrid to Chelsea, Sep 2003
Houllier on Gerrard leaving Liverpool "I don't think he wanted to show the fans his decline. I personally think he could play in a different role, a bit like Andrea Pirlo, in front of the defence like an anchorman. Maybe he wanted to have a new challenge and that's typical of Stevie."
