Man Of Iron

Ah Stevie, Stevie.

If my heart ever bled for a player, it certainly bled for you. You deserved better, and everyone knows it. What price on loyalty these days eh? You stuck it out through sixteen years of winning almost nothing, at a club which had gorged itself on silverware both during your boyhood years and not long before you broke into its first team.

Football, like life, can be cruel. And I can’t help thinking, every time I see a picture or video of Steven Gerrard, that a dark - almost bitter - cast hangs over his face. His eyes seem slightly crinkled by a tinge of disappointment, with his lower lip curled in frustration. Maybe I’m just imagining things, or it could be that the constant lack of sleep-ins, courtesy of the kids, is messing with my head.

But over the last year or two, I feel that Gerrard is looking back on his career with a wee bit of regret. A bit like a priest questioning the real value of his lifelong vocation, and wondering whether there was any point to all of the sacrifices made. Admittedly Gerrard has been the long-serving captain of a great club, which is a big achievement in itself. But one can’t avoid the feeling that it’s so easy to wave the captain’s armband at a standout player, especially when you know you have so little to offer him in the way of genuine title challenges.

The odd comment has also been passed, from a usually tight-lipped specimen, which has set the alarm off in my head. First there were those remarks midway through last season, when Liverpool were well on track to finally get their hands the title.

In rather off-the-wall words for a captain at the forefront of a title charge, Stevie said that he felt he had been presented with possibly the only real chance he had to win the Premier League. A curious inference, if not an outright admission, that Liverpool flattered to deceive throughout his career, and were likely to do so again in future.

 

 

Prophetic words too, when one considers the paucity of quality evident in their game this season. A season in which Stevie himself has come under the microscope, and been accused of being too old to keep up with the demands of the sport. Also a season in which Gerrard has dropped hints that this may well be his last year at the club.

Which somehow reminds me of how Gabriel Batistuta decided to spend his last quality season at Capello’s  revamped and big-spending Roma back in 2001, where the Argentinean striker finally won the Serie A following  countless, fruitless years serving his beloved Fiorentina.

Go Stevie, go. Do what Gabriel did. Who the hell can begrudge you a title tilt at a big spender? If anyone earned the right, then surely it’s you. It would actually flood me with relief to see you heading somewhere like a City, Chelsea, or even the likes of PSG, after the crap that your beloved Liverpool put you through.

Go somewhere where you can finally form part of a genuine title contender, because God knows you deserve a fitting swansong. Don’t end it like Carragher with the League Cup or something useless like that! Please don’t.

Maybe he already has something lined up. For this has also been a season in which Stevie has spoken with some resignation about the strategy of his team’s owners, who he claims are pursuing a policy of securing talented youth rather than spending big on star players like Chelsea and Manchester City.

A remark that was swiftly followed by Manuel Pellegrini’s open declaration of admiration for Gerrard, in which the Manchester City manager claimed that the Liverpool captain would be more than welcome at the Etihad. Maybe Stevie’s head has finally been turned. Is this why Rodgers rushed to declare that a contract would be offered to his captain, so that he might cash in on him in the summer transfer window? Just like he did with Suarez?

Perhaps Stevie has finally seen the light. Because seriously, how much more can a natural born winner take? His levels of psychological endurance are quite simply astounding. How many times has he found himself the scapegoat for England’s setbacks? Coupled with the countless years at club level spent looking on at lesser players in other teams winning the league each year, with his Liverpool only managing second place (and then only twice) during his whole career at Anfield?

To think that his youth held a promise of so much more silverware, back in the late nineties to mid-noughties. A time when the leading midfield generals of the day were the combustible pair of Keane and Vieira, with ‘Stevie G’ but a young pretender. Those were heady moments for the young midfielder, who was given his first cap by Keegan in England’s 1-0 win against Germany at the disastrous Euro 2000, and started in Eriksson’s England side that took Germany apart 5-1 away in 2001.

Stevie himself chipped in with a phenomenal screamer of a goal during that famous rout. So much for German keeper Oliver Kahn cheekily claiming before the game that he had never even heard of the young Scouser!

 

 

 

Gerrard was then a boy possessed of great skill, a wicked shot, and a frightening work-rate that made him a one man army. Not to mention a useful versatility, which allowed him to excel at right back, right wing, central midfield and in the hole behind the striker. There was also a remarkable level-headedness to him, and I remember him before the FA Cup final of 2001 in which Liverpool played Arsenal, claiming that Vieira was streets ahead of him in terms of talent.

The fresh-faced Gerrard said that it would take years for him to reach the same level as the Frenchman, and Vieira did indeed keep him quiet during the encounter, although Liverpool went on to nick the cup with two late strikes from a livewire named Michael Owen.

And although Keane’s Man United and Vieira’s Arse went on to completely eclipse Liverpool’s achievements in the league, it was a different matter in Europe. Stevie proved crucial to the Reds' clinching of the UEFA cup in 2001. And this achievement preceded what was probably his most impressive season to date, when he almost single-handedly propelled a mediocre Liverpool side to the European Cup final of 2005 in Istanbul, doing what both Keane and Vieira never managed by leading his team to victory. For once at least, the infamous pair must have stared on at him in envy.

Yet for all the incredible goals and immense midfield displays, the one true quality that will endure in the memory shall be his endurance, as he put in one hard shift after another in a side that foundered so badly after the first American takeover of Anfield. Six years of his career fizzled into irrelevance due to the ineptitude of the two cowboys who acquired the club and promised so much to its fans, only to get found out by the global financial crisis. 

All in all a state of affairs which was as frustrating as it was maddening for the players too, with eventual manager Roy Hodgson subsequently stating that his star striker Fernando Torres had ‘a beef’ with the club. And little wonder, too.

Yet through all the mediocre signings and frustrating departures of star players, Stevie’s efforts kept the fans’ chins up. How he did it beggars belief, and I can only put it down to a cast iron resolve, coupled with a fanatical devotion to the side he supported as a boy.

How he still does it now is also beyond me, and even Suarez recently stated in his autobiography that after Stevie’s famous fatal slip against Chelsea in April, he cannot believe that his former team mate still finds the mental strength to take the field to play for the Reds.

Maybe Gerrard is earning more than people know, for his unwavering commitment to his side is quite simply baffling. But I don't think it's to do with money. How many world class players have come and gone, with local star Owen jetting for Madrid, Torres doing what Gerrard could not by joining Chelsea, Hamann, Hyppia, Babbel and Henchoz long retired, Agger heading back home, and Xabi, Macherano and now also Suarez chasing the bright lights in Spain.

Fellow Scouser Carragher has also retired. Each time Stevie has been left behind them to walk alone in the Anfield dressing room, reeling from one tortuous separation after another. Emotionally speaking it's been years of repeated kicks in the guts for him, as he's been left to learn how to play with new, often inferior players.

 

 

If Fenway Sports Group somehow succeed in returning the club to its rightful place in years to come, fans will nod their heads ruefully as they refer to the ‘Gerrard years’. For Stevie G has been the one constant in a barren twenty year patch of turmoil dominated by United’s fierce will to win, Arsenal’s initial (but all too fleeting) brilliance under Wenger and Chelsea’s and City’s moneybags.

And even now he is raring to start every game, demonstrating his ongoing commitment to Liverpool by retiring from the national side. How he would have hated being left out of his team’s latest outing against Real Madrid! Although I think that part of him would rather recharge the batteries for the clash against Chelsea. After his famous tumble in their last meeting, he will quite simply be pumped for this Saturday’s encounter, and bent on wreaking havoc in midfield.

It will be a chance for personal vindication against Jose Mourinho’s men, although expect ‘the Special One’ to have his team shoot out of the blocks like a wounded beast, following their midweek setback against Maribor in the Champions League. Jose should fancy his side’s chances going into this game (how he must have laughed out loud upon hearing that the Reds had signed up Mario Balotelli), in which the Blues are surely favourites given their league form to date.

Expect a few red-blooded clashes and sparks to fly in midfield as Gerrard takes on the box to box monster that is Nemanja Matic. It may well prove a watershed encounter for the loyal Scouser. He will meet few stiffer opponents this season, and it will be curious to see whether he vindicates Rodgers’ decision to rest him against Madrid. Can he bear the torch left to him by the long retired Keane and Vieira, and dominate this up and coming, hungry midfield dynamo?

Gerrard might also see a mirror of his younger self in Matic. Yet expect little room for emotion as – for yet another year - he stands and fights for Liverpool’s pride, if little else.