Gerrard would have stayed as squad player if offered coaching role

[Bjornebye]

I have cringed at every snippet of this new book I have read. His first autobiography made me wince at times as well. Far too self indulgent. Carras was a much better read. This is the last thing we need right now and Gerrard should know that.

[Russ Atmosphere]

Hope Henderson has better luck texting this year's targets.

[Dicko]

Hope Henderson has better luck texting this year's targets.

Hey Lionel it's Jordan, you know off the Nivea adverts...

[Denny Crane]

Gerrard's ace and he has every right to air his views but it won't do much to dispel the Stevie Me tag he had acquired.

 

I'm waiting for the hand rubbing chapter sponsored by Nivea.

[Gym Beglin]

I find it all a bit weird with Gerrard.

 

Like talking about all the top strikers he played with, and the best players, and the he goes on about Torres, and Alonso, and Suarez, but never gives Sturridge a mention.

 

He also reckons Xabi would still be here if it wasn't for Rafa, which I find delusional. He looked pretty happy in Spain to me.

[Nightcat]

"Stevie-me"?

 

hahahaha what is this shit? are you serious?

 

Gerrard pisses all over you and all over Rodgiefart too. He golden showers you.

[stringvest]

look at the shite he's been asked to do by the club, the shite he's had to put up with from managers, never mind the shite he's had to play alongside.  Stevie Me indeed.  Wankers.

[Section_31]

Gerrard as a coach - are you kidding me?

 

 

The guy is too self-absorbed and has zero game intelligence. We could however put him in charge of Hollywood balls or manager shafting.

 

Oh dear. 

[Biscao]

He also reckons Xabi would still be here if it wasn't for Rafa, which I find delusional. He looked pretty happy in Spain to me.

 

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but I somehow believe Gerrard has a bit more to base that opinion on than your experience from various internet forums and Woolie the Chauffeur.

[Nightcat]

Steven Gerrard could have easily joined chlesea f.c. and the portuguese rat in 2005 a few weeks after Istanbul and he would still be in the Top 3 Liverpool F.C. Legends ever and he would have thrived and won everything multiple times with chelsea and now he would be considered one of the best english players ever. But he stayed on and kept us at the top for as many years as he could. But yeah, "Stevie-me". I bet you've learned that from your manc boyfriends, who also taught you how to pronounce "slippy g", that it wasn't our ridiculous defending that cost us the title but it was one unfortunate moment leading to one goal.

 

Steven Gerrard golden-showers you and you love it.

[El Rojo]

He'd probably have had a warmer relationship with Alan Curbishley than with Benitez, but thankfully himself, Jamie Carragher and other senior players weren't fully in charge of choosing their own boss.

 

Granted he had issues with Benitez. That's his entitlement. But he'll lose credibility if he isn't in any way critical of Hodgson in this book. A legend like him should be above petty point-scoring.

 

I'm not sure what he gains from this. He doesn't need the money and could have a go at anybody he wants in newspaper interviews or through television punditry.

[stringvest]

He'd probably have had a warmer relationship with Alan Curbishley than with Benitez, but thankfully himself, Jamie Carragher and other senior players weren't fully in charge of choosing their own boss.

 

Granted he had issues with Benitez. That's his entitlement. But he'll lose credibility if he isn't in any way critical of Hodgson in this book. A legend like him should be above petty point-scoring.

 

I'm not sure what he gains from this. He doesn't need the money and could have a go at anybody he wants in newspaper interviews or through television punditry.

I agree, it's unedifying, but he's keeping a great deal of his powder dry.  It's certainly badly timed, and the manager needs this like he needs another tooth implant right now, but I still have far more respect for Gerrard than I do for any of the managers he's played for apart from Dalglish.  

[VladimirIlyich]

look at the shite he's been asked to do by the club, the shite he's had to put up with from managers, never mind the shite he's had to play alongside. Stevie Me indeed. Wankers.

This.

[KMD7]

This.

 

+1

[ritchie]

He'd probably have had a warmer relationship with Alan Curbishley than with Benitez, but thankfully himself, Jamie Carragher and other senior players weren't fully in charge of choosing their own boss.

 

Granted he had issues with Benitez. That's his entitlement. But he'll lose credibility if he isn't in any way critical of Hodgson in this book. A legend like him should be above petty point-scoring.

 

I'm not sure what he gains from this. He doesn't need the money and could have a go at anybody he wants in newspaper interviews or through television punditry.

 

Judging by his previous interviews he'll blame the fans for not getting behind Hodgson.

 

I really don't get him when it comes football managers. The quote abut if only Rafa had Rodgers' man-management skills is as insulting as it's laughable (Same with the if only Rodgers had been manager the last 10 years i'd have loads of titles). Just because Rodgers spent three years kissing Gerrard's hoop doesn't make him a good man-manager. He's fell out with and alienated more players than Rafa ever did, even if Rafa could be awkward. Rodgers was in awe of Gerrard.

 

Rafa's a better manager than Rodgers could dream of being but Gerrard seems to equate good management with how much smoke gets blown up his backside. 

[jimmycase]

Judging by his previous interviews he'll blame the fans for not getting behind Hodgson.

 

I really don't get him when it comes football managers. The quote abut if only Rafa had Rodgers' man-management skills is as insulting as it's laughable (Same with the if only Rodgers had been manager the last 10 years i'd have loads of titles). Just because Rodgers spent three years kissing Gerrard's hoop doesn't make him a good man-manager. He's fell out with and alienated more players than Rafa ever did, even if Rafa could be awkward. Rodgers was in awe of Gerrard.

 

Rafa's a better manager than Rodgers could dream of being but Gerrard seems to equate good management with how much smoke gets blown up his backside. 

 

Wibble.

[jimmycase]

Was Bob Paisley a mong for saying "let a player lose his legs on someone else's pitch" as he kept us at the top by regularly freshening things up?

 

Gerrard didn't want to be a squad player. He's 35.

 

Im saying you're a mong you fuckwit.

[kemskem]

I find it all a bit weird with Gerrard.

Like talking about all the top strikers he played with, and the best players, and the he goes on about Torres, and Alonso, and Suarez, but never gives Sturridge a mention.

He also reckons Xabi would still be here if it wasn't for Rafa, which I find delusional. He looked pretty happy in Spain to me.

He was heaping praise on Sturridge tonight on radio city.

[scousewillis]

Rafa is saying that Gerrard was wrong in what he said about him in the book ... and that he will not comment any further out of respect and appreciation for Gerrard, the fans, and the club ...

[Jairzinho]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/15/rafa-benitez-steven-gerrard-wrong-frosty-relationship-liverpool

 

Rafael Benitez says that Steven Gerrard is wrong over the midfielder’s claims that they the pair never had a personal relationship when they worked together at Liverpool.

 

Gerrard made the comments in his new autobiography, which has been serialised in the Daily Mail, and said there was a “frostiness” between him and Benítez, and that he didn’t “think Rafa liked me as a person” as there was “no bond between us.”

 

But Benítez, now manager of Real Madrid, has told Spanish TV that Gerrard’s remarks are wide of the mark, and suggested that they were made in order to sell more copies of his book.

 

“I have read the quotes and I believe he is wrong,” Benítez said. “Out of the respect that I have for Stevie and for the value and appreciation I have for him, and for Liverpool and the supporters, I think it’s best to just let it pass. He has brought out a book and now I’m the Real Madrid manager, that sells.”

 

Gerrard enjoyed the most successful period of his playing career under Benítez, and was instrumental in helping Liverpool win the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup Final in 2006, but said that the Spaniard is the only manager he worked with at Anfield that he could not just pick up the phone to.

 

The 35-year-old also said that before he had even met Benítez, the manager had asked his mother “a very blunt question: ‘Does Steven like money?’ Apart from a standard ‘Hello ... good to meet you’ introduction, those were the first words Rafa said to my mum. I thought: ‘What kind of question is that?’

 

“On a basic human level I prefer a likeable manager, such as Gerard Houllier or Brendan Rodgers, but in terms of football I really don’t mind working with a colder man,” Gerrard also said. “An emotionless and distant relationship with the likes of Rafa Benítez and Fabio Capello can sometimes produce more success.”

[chris71]

These books are a curse. With all the cash the modern day player earns surely they can say, I'll wait till I'm finished, before getting the biro out? This one has come out so fast it seems as though he started it on the way to Dubai after Stoke.

[scousewillis]

I think Gerrard comes across as a bit of an immature person in this book.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Gerrard is in the reckoning when ever a discussion happens about the best player to ever pull on the red shirt.

 

However, pretty much every snippet of his book is making him come across as a bit of a needy whopper.

 

Particularly the Benitez parts. Whether you like Rafa or not, that's who he was. Cold. Professional. Focused to the extent of it being obsessive. Vital goals scored - no display of emotion, just a scribble in his notebook. Sitting like a Buddha during a Champions League penalty shoot out.

 

It's a wholly unsavoury affair, from which nobody comes out with any credit. Gerrard is sullying his reputation with this petty stuff. It's almost as cringeworthy as when everybody found out that he likes Phil Collins.

[torahboy]

Bruce Arena better be nice to Steven or he'll find himself criticised in the third instalment of Gerrard's memoirs. "Bruce was doing a great job for soccer in the USA but he never understood that former Premier League superstars require deep rimming, not just cursory arse kissing, after training sessions. Nice guy but lacking professional tongue".

 

I understand that these books are essential reading for some fans, and I've read a few myself, but these 'insights' into a footballer's thoughts don't do anyone much good, apart from giving the author a bank account top up.

 

Gerrard and Benitez are both modern Liverpool legends and both - and I might be shocking some people here -both are human. Full of the mood swings, misery and bad manners that we all display from time to time. Also like many, they were good at their jobs.

 

Yet, unlike many, their jobs were performed before a massive audience, the large majority of which they had to please by winning football games. For me winning those games was all that counted, the personal interactions of the players didn't matter. unless they adversely affected the results we sought, and even then my only demand would be 'you're professionals - leave it out or sort it out'. Rafa and Gerrard were professional enough to sort it out.

 

It looks, though, as if Gerrard is still sorting it out, but his reminiscences seem pretty petty compared to his achievements, the details of which I could never tire of studying.

 .

[Nightcat]

Rodgieshit's man-management skills? Gerrard you sexy WUM. I can't wait for Agger's or Illory's books. I will definitely buy Sakho's.