Steven Gerrard has admitted he would have signed a contract extension at Liverpool had it been offered to him last summer and is expected to agree an 18-month deal with LA Galaxy in the next 48 hours.
Liverpool did not open talks with Gerrard over a new deal until November and by then the captain had established in discussions with the manager, Brendan Rodgers, that he would no longer be an automatic selection if he stayed beyond this season. Unwilling to become a squad player, the 34-year-old announced last week that he would leave when his deal expires in the summer.
Confirmation that Los Angeles is to be his next destination appears to be imminent. He is expected to be given a basic salary of £4m per year by the Major League Soccer club – about £76,000 per week, with image rights inflating that figure. That equates to around half of what he is earning at Anfield.
“If a contract had been put in front of me in pre-season I would have signed it,” Gerrard told the Liverpool Echo. “I’d just retired from England to concentrate all my efforts on Liverpool. I didn’t want my club games to be tailored. My injury record had been fantastic for the past two and a half years and I had a great season from a personal point of view last season. It’s all ifs, buts and hindsight now. That period between the summer and the end of November gave me thinking time.
“There’s no blame and I’m not angry about it. There are other people in the squad and the club had other things to worry about. Liverpool Football Club have been unbelievable for me since I was eight years old. This club has helped me fulfil my dreams over and over again.”
Although Gerrard insists his decision to part company with Liverpool has been “very amicable”, the admission that he would have signed an extension had one been on the table in the summer raises fresh questions over Fenway Sports Group’s handling of the situation.
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Rodgers stated in pre-season that a new deal for Liverpool’s captain of the past 11 years was “a formality”, only to concede later in the campaign, when no offer was forthcoming, that Gerrard had a “life decision” to make. The Liverpool manager categorically denied that money was a factor in Gerrard’s reluctance to commit and his anticipated basic salary at LA Galaxy supports that view. The midfielder confirmed that the prospect of having his game time cut, outlined to him by Rodgers in November, was a key factor in his decision not to renew.
“I’ve got to be honest,” Gerrard said. “That chat with Brendan came earlier than I was expecting. It was tough but I understood.” He added: “When it gets to the stage where you don’t know if you’re going to be starting or not it becomes different. I’ve never wanted to be a squad player. If I was missing games now, I’d be sitting out even more next season. I knew it would get worse and worse as time went on.”
Rodgers’ decision to omit Gerrard from Liverpool’s starting lineup at Real Madrid in the Champions League would have been a serious setback to the man who lifted the club’s fifth European Cup in 2005. The former England captain has also come in for severe criticism during Liverpool’s difficult campaign yet has showed his enduring importance to the club several times this season, including in the FA Cup win at AFC Wimbledon on Monday.
“It’s got nothing to do with how results have been,” Gerrard said of his decision to leave. “That’s not the type I am. If things aren’t going so well, I’d rather stay and help to put things right. I think I’ve shown that over the years.
“It simply came down to the fact that the idea of becoming a squad player didn’t excite me or motivate me.”
