Steven Gerrard has revealed that he’d still be at Liverpool and would have accepted a bit part role if they’d offered him a player / coach position for this season.
‘I was surprised a role wasn’t mentioned when chief executive Ian Ayre sat down with my agent but maybe it might happen one day” he told Mail Sport in a exclusive chat. “I’d have stayed on as a squad player if I’d had the chance to learn more about management or coaching. I left with all the doors still open, but yes, I could still have been at Liverpool now.’
The Anfield legend acknowledges he is no longer able to play twice a week but admits he found it difficult to accept that last season. “Ability-wise, I could still play but physically I couldn’t play every game at my age,’ he said. ‘I didn’t enjoy being sub last season. I didn’t enjoy not knowing if I would be in the XI or not. I didn’t enjoy when Liverpool were in the Champions League, the idea that I might have to miss matches. I struggled to get my head around it.”
“Maybe that was selfish of me but I had gone a long time playing every single game. I might be contradicting myself here but what would have kept me at Liverpool into this season was the chance of shadowing Brendan Rodgers and his staff as well as playing. Those ideas were only mentioned to me after I had announced I was leaving.”
“I don’t know if I am going to be good enough to be a manager, or a No 1, No 2, No 3 or No 4" he explained. "Liverpool replaced coaches Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh in the summer, so they were looking for a new No 2, or No 3 or No 4. I would have been tailor-made to fill one of these roles, as well as making myself available as a squad player. I could have been a good squad player, a good sub, as well as getting management experience that money can’t buy."
Having previously - and unconvincingly - stated that his departure was due to wanting to play every game and being unable to accept being rotated, this change of story is hardly a surprise.
The question is why did LFC allow this to happen, particularly after making the same mistake with Jamie Carragher two years earlier? Two men with almost unparalleled levels of experience who live and breathe Liverpool Football Club as much as anybody out there are now employed elsewhere, presumably because Rodgers either sees no use for them or would feel threatened by their presence.
One of the first things the Northern Irishman did on his arrival at Anfield was try to persuade Carragher to join his coaching staff - an offer the defender asked to be put on hold while he concentrated on playing - but when the time came for ‘Carra’ to announce his retirement, the subject of joining the coaching staff was never brought up again and he took a job at Sky.
Gary McAllister was brought in this summer because Rodgers (or possibly the club) acknowledged the need to have a former player with experience of winning things and who knows what LFC is all about on the coaching staff, but while everyone is happy to see Gary Mac back on board, it is a little puzzling that neither Carragher nor Gerrard were offered that opportunity.
Gerrard asks the question in his book, why couldn't Liverpool have done for him what United did for Ryan Giggs?
Perhaps the answer to that is because when things went wrong for David Moyes the clamour from United fans was for "Giggseh" to take over, which of course he eventually did (his hairy ar$e was in the manager's chair before the seat had even gone cold). Even now there are United fans who would happily see 'the Welsh Walking Carpet' take over from Louis Van Gaal.
Rodgers may well feel he could do without that kind of shadow looming over him, and who knows, perhaps the owners felt the same?
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