10 May 2015

Confirmed: 'Amazing' LFC star almost quit Liverpool 'three' times to sign for Mourinho

On Friday, Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho hailed 'amazing' Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard his 'favourite enemy', and after the Blues ended the Reds Champions League delusion today, Gerrard confirmed that he rejected the chance to work with the Portuguese several times during his career.

In his post-match interview after Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Chelsea, Gerrard hailed Mourinho as the 'best manager in the world', and admitted:

"I would have signed for him on three occasions if I wasn't such a big Liverpool fan. He's the reason my head was turned on a couple of occasions but he knew why I couldn't do it, because I love Liverpool Football Club"

Gerrard almost signed for Chelsea twice in the mid-2000s:

* 2004: Chelsea made a record bid for Gerrard, and it took the intervention of new boss Rafa Benitez to convince him to stay. After being appointed, Benitez flew to England's Euro 2004 base in Portugal to speak with Gerrard, and after those talks, the midfielder told reporters:

"I've not been happy with the progress the club has made and I've thought about the possibility of moving on, but I've gone with my heart. I've made a decision to stay at Liverpool."

* 2005: Same s&*t, different year. Gerrard actually decided to leave, and the club confirmed this with the following statement:

"Steven has told us he will not accept our offer of an improved and extended contract because he wants to leave. We have done our best, but he has made it clear he wants to go"

At the time, Gerrard explained his decision thus:

"I fully intended to sign a new contract after the Champions League final, but the events of the past five to six weeks have changed all that".

For a 24-hour period, things were extremely bleak: the press reported that Gerrard was leaving, and this prompted some enraged fans to burn their Gerrard shirts in protest (!) Then, in a stunning turnaround, he suddenly changed his mind and decided to stay:

"I knew I had to do what I had intended to do all along and sign a new contract. I love Liverpool so much. The last thing I wanted to do was leave, I just could not do it."

I remember that period well, and I was on Gerrard's case for a long while after that for (what I perceived to be) his breathtakingly ungrateful conduct.

After all, at 25, Gerrard was captain of his hometown club, with a Champions League winner's medal in his pocket. What else did he want? He was living the dream, yet still wanted out.

Obviously, I'm glad Gerrard stayed, though, and the fact he rejected the chance to join Mourinho at Inter Milan and Madrid (as confirmed by Mourinho himself) is a testament to his loyalty.

Now, with Gerrard leaving, fans will have to make do with mercenaries like Raheem Sterling, a player who clearly has no genuine affection or affinity for LFC.

To be honest, even with his reduced effectiveness, I'd take Gerrard over Sterling every day of the week, and if it was down to me, I'd keep Gerrard for another year and sell Sterling to the highest bidder.

That said, the Sterling situation is very similar to the Gerrard-Chelsea fiasco from 2005. Who's to say that Sterling won't see sense, sign a new contract, and then spend the next 10 years at Anfield?

I can't see that happening, but like Gerrard and his incredible U-turn in 2005, anything's possible.

Author: Jaimie K


13 comments:

  1. Well done to Raheem, he's managed to get another mention on a post that had nothing to do with him. He just craves attention that boy :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Damn it, I read all the way to the last two paragraphs of that article thinking I had a great counter scenario for your anti-Sterling prophecy, but you snatched it away at the last moment by reading my mind in advance.
    Not sure how you did that but nevertheless, lets hope that Sterling does indeed stay and go on to help LFC to glory.

    ReplyDelete
  3. next week will be very emotional. I am relatively very young Liverpool fan and I started following liverpool watching torres and gerrard. Torres transfer was a huge heartbreak for me. Gerrard for me is the greatest player and kind of an inspiration. He made me love this beautiful game of football and this very special club. I wish him all the very best but it feels just like yesterday when he won champions league for liverpool..feels too soon for him to go. I know that no club is bigger than a player but Gerrard is a huge part of Liverpool and it just won't be the same again next season. End of an era...for me at least.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I expect he's on a percentage. Bloody mercenary

    ReplyDelete
  5. RUPERT MURDOCH MEMORIAL SOCCER ARENA
    HOME OF THE LIVERPOOL DRAGONS
    THE FUTURE

    INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

    REPORTER: Well, Sir Raheem, congratulations!
    RAHEEM; [removes pipe from mouth] My good man. Thanks awfully.
    REPORTER: Your 1000th appearance for Liverpool, clinching your 10th Gazprom Ultimate Euro Premier Cup title, it must be a proud day.
    RAHEEM: [adjusts shiny silk top hat, puffs on pipe]: Indeed.
    REPORTER: But it wasn't always like this -- the fans love you now [scuffles are heard off camera as some desperate young women holding babies in one hand and court orders in the other are removed from the area, RAHEEM remains unmoved] but there have been times in your career when it seemed you might leave the Rupert Murdoch Soccer Arena to seek your destiny elsewhere.
    RAHEEM: [checks pocket watch, twirls moustache] Quite so.
    REPORTER: Back in 2015, for example --
    RAHEEM: [extracts monocle from waistcoat pocket] Ah yes.
    REPORTER: ...
    RAHEEM: [begins polishing monocle with crisp white handkerchief] Well, I was quite the thrusting young buck about town in those days. I recall vividly the day when Lord Rodgers, as he would become known -- we simply referred to him as Brendan back then [RAHEEM inserts monocle, puffs pipe, continues] -- declared that the "club" were only prepared to offer me some ridiculous, paltry sum in the region of ten million "pounds", as we called them then, per annum, to appear in a footballing capacity on a quite frequent basis -- almost every week, I think it was.
    REPORTER: Extraordinary.
    RAHEEM: Isn't it just?
    REPORTER: [after a brief pause] But then what happened to... to...
    RAHEEM: To change my mind? Well now, I don't know if you will be old enough to remember, something we used rather a lot back then, we called "the internet". It was jolly interesting.
    REPORTER: Ha, well, hmm, that's not necessarily the word --
    RAHEEM: [gesturing with his pipe throughout what follows] Indeed. But on this "internet", there was a gentleman who would compose these extraordinary moral epistles, largely on the subject of soccer, you see. His name escapes me -- no, James, I believe it was. And I would read these moral essays of his, you know. And over the course of that season, 2014-15, well he conducted this simply extraordinary campaign against me; calling me, repeatedly, a... well it hardly seems proper to repeat the calumnies he invented, the vile insults with which he sought to slur my otherwise spotless reputation.
    REPORTER: [inspecting his notebook] Yes, he called you a "raging mercenary".
    RAHEEM: [monocle pops from his eye] Good gracious, man!
    REPORTER: [drops notebook] Gosh, I'm sorry.
    RAHEEM: [replaces monocle]: Well of course. Indeed. And I would read these items, you see. And eventually it reached a point --
    REPORTER: [retrieving notebook] You learned humility and saw the error of your ways?
    RAHEEM: [frowns slightly]: Don't be a damn fool. No, I duelled the scribbler with pistol and sabre on Stanley Park and that was the last anyone heard of him. Lord Rodgers arranged a more appropriate sum to be made available as a retainer and after that, well, things went swimmingly.
    REPORTER: Er.
    RAHEEM: [unflustered] Good show. Right. Must dash. Jolly nice chatting with you. Do give my regards to your charming daughter.
    REPORTER: I don't have a daughter sir.
    RAHEEM: [distractedly, as his manservant takes his pipe and offers him a small glass of sherry] Oh? I was sure she said she was your daughter. Perhaps your wife, then. A fine filly. Good show.
    REPORTER: [submssively] Thank you, sir.
    RAHEEM: [monocle, pipe, pocket-watch, fedora] Indeed! That's just what she said.

    INTERVIEW ENDS

    ReplyDelete
  6. Needs must; he has 73 mouths to feed, and a 50 a day party balloon habbit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What's your poison Chirag? drinks are on me.
    End of an era but new beginnings too and Gerrard will always be around. Talk of him coming back on loan next season so who knows, perhaps the final chapter is still being written.
    He's already left a legacy and somewhere out there is an army of Gerrard inspired players just itching to don the shirt.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Did you see that tackle that Sterling took today?....this is why he wants the best deal for himself. Imagine if that tackle retired him ?are Liverpool going to look after him ? Do Liverpool look after players like Wayne Harrison whos career was ended far to early to injury ? I doubt it. So this mercenaries label is pretty lame and lazy tag to attach to players.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It like Jamie is trying to send us subliminal messages about Raheem through his posts, can't quite work out what he is trying to convey.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've just finished a *very long* post about that but it's been held by the moderation thingy. Possibly because it repeatedly uses the word "manservant"? Hm.

    ReplyDelete
  11. That point is lost on most people who simply react with opinion driven by envy of an unimaginable lifestyle already given to a young boy who never had to work as hard as they do

    But this is at odds with the 1-2 million pounds Sterling has foregone by not accepting a deal worth £100k or more early this season.

    That said, he needs to improve quite a few parts of his game, and get this contract signed as soon as possible since to all intents and purposes the season is now over.

    Or get gone

    ReplyDelete
  12. Most professional footballers who have even quarter of a brain have personal injury insurance (most cases 5 times their annual salary) for career ending injuries. Think it is also a requirement for clubs to have some form of insurance to cover their players. So in answer as to why he his looking more money, it is just plain greed

    ReplyDelete