This is mostly because I look on in despair at my younger self for holding it against him for wanting to move to Chelsea. Then I cringe at all the ridiculous shit I'd come out with to try and vindicate these stupid little ideas like he wasn't the best player on the team, or we needed him out of a certain position for the good of the team, or that we need Murphy, or Sissoko, or Zenden to someone cover for his flaws. I still cringe. This idea that Gerrard should've been grateful for Bolo's shuttle runs down the left, like it somehow gave him the freedom to perform, rather than inhibiting him by surrounding him with yet more players nowhere near his level.



But yeah, basically, if I see a better Liverpool player in the next 20 years than him I'll be deliriously happy. We get sucked into this every time we get a new star and pretend they're somehow eclipsing him. Torres was going to be better, Suarez was going to be better. The truth is that you'd have to combine their times at the club, then double it to get up there with Gerrard. I can't remember such a driven player. So many people have tried to twist his unreal will and borderline single mindedness into a bad thing. I never buy the "one man team" line, but there were times in Ged's last season where he came mighty close.



Not my place to say whether he's the best Liverpool player ever but he could've gone to any club in the world, at a time when we weren't particularly successful. Nearly everything achieved during that time has involved a major Steven Gerrard "moment" (or several)... and yet some hold it against him that he considered moving to Chelsea? Nah. Sod holding on to that anger. Delighted to have seen him play at Liverpool for so long. One of a kind that lad.

What gets cheaper the more expensive it becomes? Id say your average football supporter could probably hazard a good guess. However, lest I be accused of wearing rose-tinted specs for the past, I want to just state for the record at the outset that modern football is not all bad. Up until as recently as maybe twenty years ago, stadiums were typically basic, ancient and unsafe, while most playing surfaces, even in the top flight, resembled rugby pitches for most of the season. All of that has unquestionably changed for the better. In addition, players we have been thrilled by in recent years would have been unlikely to ever consider the English league as a realistic destination back then. To use a couple of topical examples, Pepe Reina would have likely stayed in Spain for his entire career and Luis Suárez would have probably headed for Serie A, where the cream of world football generally played in those days. Its not just them either. Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano, Jari Litmanen, maybe even Didi Hamann and Sami Hyypia  its difficult to overstate just how few non-British players plied their trade in England back then, even as recently as the early nineties, and those that did generally werent world-renowned stars.Lets take the famous 4-3 against Newcastle (the first one, as late as April 1996) as an example  Liverpool started ten English players that night, the odd man out being Jason McAteer who was English by birth anyway, with an Englishman and a Welshman coming on as subs. The unused sub, Tony Warner, was also English-born. Newcastle were a little more exotic with their Asprillas, Ginolas, Alberts and, er, Srniceks, but still had the likes of Howey, Beresford, Peacock, Ferdinand, Beardsley, Lee, Watson, Batty and Clark on duty, with Northern Irishman Gillespie on the bench. Meaning that, of the 28 players involved that night (in a game between two league title contenders, remember), 24 were born in the UK. Both managers were English as well. It would have been difficult back then to imagine how different things would look 17 years down the line, but we can be glad it changed if only because those aforementioned players, the likes of Alonso, Torres, Mascherano, Litmanen, Hamann and Hyypia, not to mention heroes of 2005 like Dudek and Garcia, may never have found their way to Anfield otherwise. Indeed, would Rafael Benítez have ever arrived in England and masterminded that run to Istanbul if English footballs global profile and renewed ability to compete in Europe hadnt come to pass?So yes, it hasnt all been bad. In the couple of decades since the formation of the Premier League, English football has enjoyed a level of prosperity and worldwide prominence that could have scarcely been imagined in the years beforehand, and it has led to the arrival of many of the worlds best players. This club has benefitted from that too. The net result, however, has been something of a double-edged sword, with rocketing ticket prices, a decline in genuine competition at the top, FA Cup finals between two northern teams kicking off at 6 p.m. to suit corporate paymasters, extensive foreign ownership and a gradual eroding of the links between football clubs and their communities. In exchange, weve been given hype and hyperbole by a ravenous media, style to replace the substance that has been lost, probably forever. In such a climate, the formation of organisations and campaigns such as Spirit of Shankly and Against Modern Football should come as no surprise. It will, of course, but only to those people who see nothing more than the glitz and the glamour, the hype and the circus. That sheen only lasts so long, however, if you value the things which have been damaged or lost, chief amongst which is the cheapened relationship between players and supporters identified by Karl Coppack in his superb piece quoted at the start, which was posted on TAW a few weeks back.Personally, I miss the honesty, some would say naivety, of the old days. I doubt very much that Im alone in that. Players didnt talk very much, and when they did, they tended to mean what they said. There was simply no advantage in doing otherwise. Loyalty was also much more prevalent since they were often local lads, and especially since the wages on offer elsewhere were much of a muchness and European clubs would generally not have been interested, meaning a smaller list of perspective employers. As a result, the relationship was far more palatable for supporters  they stuck around until we didnt need them anymore. These days, its an infinitely more complicated pantomime that we engage in which sometimes seems never-ending. Theyve evolved, we havent. Were as sentimental and emotional, neurotic and passionate as we ever were, but football and footballers have changed, and a sport obsessed with wealth and success is likely to breed similar-minded individuals. They have different priorities and issues than they used to. Is this club in the Champions League? Is it likely to be next season or the season after? How much money will I earn? Is that more than this other fella? Am I playing in my favourite position? Must I play in my favourite position? Am I guaranteed to start? Id better be, this is a World Cup year. Do I like the manager? Does he put his arm around my shoulder enough? And so on.Somewhere along the way, they got savvy (maybe they were right to, Im not in the best position to judge seeing as how Im biased, as football supporters tend to be). This has led to the kind of smoke-and-mirrors stuff we've seen with Suárez this summer. On the surface, they give you the impression that everything is fine. You get the platitudes and the I love the club, I love the fans stuff. Im so happy here. Then they up and leave, and whats more, before we want them to. Which I can handle; theyre not our property, but like Karl Coppack, I do wonder about the need for the lies. If Luis Suárez, talent-wise one of the best players to ever grace Anfield, had spoken honestly about his need for Champions League football at this stage of his career, I think a lot of us could have made peace with his potential departure. Instead, hes batted his eyelashes publicly at Real Madrid and spoken of his desire to quit England because of the media while nonetheless acting flattered at Arsenals approach. Indeed, the Emirates now looks a realistic, even likely, destination. So much for the paparazzi. None of it adds up, which is kind of surprising in an era where footballers are so much more media-conscious than their predecessors.It seems to me, and pull me up on this if Im wrong, that they simply dont give a fuck about keeping up appearances anymore, certainly not as theyre making for the exit door. Again, Im probably not in the best position to judge the rights and wrongs of that, but it has undoubtedly cheapened the bond that once existed between us and them. Someday soon, it may cripple it entirely because it gets so that you trust nothing that comes out of their mouths. Suárez is far from the first. Michael Owen, for example, told us that he was negotiating with the club over a new contract throughout the entirety of the 2003/04 season ("I am sure there will be talks over a new contract soon, and I am just as sure I will sign"). Come the summer, he fucked off for maybe a third of what he was worth at the time. He keeps saying that someday the truth will come out about that. Great. Well for now, it looks like he was lying. Fernando Torres, meanwhile, was always gushing about how much he loved the club, before leaving for the chance of winning trophies. Fine; but did he then have to say it is the dream for every top class footballer to play at a top class club and now I can do that upon his arrival at Chelsea? You never would have guessed from the things he had said over the previous three and a half years that he had considered himself as playing for less than a top class club. Even Xabi Alonso (correct me if Im wrong here) allowed his transfer to rumble on through the summer of 2009 lest he forego a loyalty bonus by submitting an official transfer request.And yet its still difficult to leave emotion and sentiment at the door. On some level, Im still not sure that I even want to because thats what being a football supporter is all about, is it not? Sometimes I think were crazy to form such attachments to complete strangers that well never meet, and for no other reason than they happen to be good at kicking a football around. And yet in a game that has become grotesquely altered in so many ways, it feels like thats pretty much all weve got left anymore  that fierce, loyal love of the jersey and the players who wear it. If you havent got that, then whats the point really? And yet, if theyre all just mere employees and shirt fillers, is there any point anyway? Thats the conundrum facing every football supporter these days. It even faces us with someone like Pepe Reina, hard as that is to admit. Hes one of my all-time favourite Reds, the best Liverpool keeper that I have personally witnessed and one of the most passionate individuals to ever play for the club. And as far as footballers go, particularly in the modern game, youd be hard pushed to find one more deserving of the kind of love and affection hes been given by Liverpool supporters over the past eight years. But as much as I like and respect him, the fact is that hes a modern footballer, with everything that entails.I mean, Luis Suárez is easy. His antics this summer have shown us what kind of individual were dealing with  a hugely committed, vastly talented magician on the football pitch that weve been thoroughly lucky to have, but one who will do anything he needs to in looking out for number one. And yet, when the time comes for him to move on permanently, as it will, my instinct tells me that Pepe Reina will do what he has to do, maybe not in the same way as Owen, Torres or Suárez, but its not beyond the realms of possibility either. Barcelona, a club that he has already admitted he would liked to have joined this summer, represents the opportunity to return to his homeland and likely contend for as many major trophies in one season as hes won during eight years at Anfield. Nobody could blame him for that; and yet at the same time, come next summer, if Liverpool were to accept, say, a £12m bid from [insert club here] and Barca were only offering £9m, do we really think he wouldnt dig his heels and do whatever it took to secure his dream move? Indeed, viewed a certain way, his recent letter could be read as an attempt to justify such tactics should they become necessary down the line. I genuinely hate thinking like that, but there's no escaping the reality that modern footballers are very different from you or I, and thats more pronounced now than its ever been. I seriously doubt that well ever see another John Aldridge, used as a counterpoint in Coppack's piece, at any club. Theres just way too many other factors at play.Which makes Steven Gerrard all the more remarkable.Ill be honest, I didnt see it for a long time. Back when Chelsea were trying, unsuccessfully, to lure him to west London, I used to wonder, arrogantly, especially after Istanbul, what more he wanted  captain of one of the biggest clubs in the world and an England regular, having won everything of consequence at club level bar the League, and only 25 (more or less the same age bracket as Suárez). Check out the excellent post below from Juan Loco. Like Juan, I came out with some ridiculous garbage back then to try and justify the fact that I simply didnt like Steven Gerrard all that much. I loved all the great moments he gave us, I loved watching the skill and athleticism he regularly exhibited in a Liverpool shirt, but there always seemed to be some other player that I appreciated more (many of whom turned out to simply be better actors). I thought he was selfish and immature, although a lot of that was probably down to honesty that I simply didn't want to hear. I didnt like hearing him talk about the club matching his ambition, I didnt like seeing him almost move to Chelsea twice, I didnt like his public comments about only wanting to play in the centre, I didnt like it when Rafa hauled Torres off at St. Andrews and he looked at the bench with total disbelief. And as a result, I tended to ignore the fact that every other manager (or supporter, for that matter) of every other club would have thought strongly about it if Liverpool had rang them and said Ok, you can have Stevie, but well be wanting a few fingers, maybe a kneecap, and a night or two with your wife, and instead focused on his shortcomings. It was wilful ignorance, and I was so fucking wrong.One of a kind indeed. What I didnt appreciate then, at least not fully, was everything that comes with being one of the best and most sought-after players in world football. He was that rare specimen  an English footballer that would have walked into virtually any side in the world. Not only did the best want him, the richest wanted him in an era where those who didnt have raw financial muscle found themselves facing an increasingly steeper climb to the top. Anybody would have had him in their team, anyone that could have afforded him. And he, of course, had doubts about whether he could fulfil all his ambitions at Liverpool, well-founded ones, as it turned out  since that night in Istanbul, Steven Gerrard, one of the best footballers in the world, has won an FA Cup and a League Cup. In eight years. Of course he had to think about it; of course he had to agonise over it. What player wouldnt have, especially in the modern game? And yet the amazing thing is, hes still here. Coming up on fifteen years since he made his debut, he is now virtually certain to finish his career at Anfield having recently signed a contract extension. Jamie Carragher likewise spent his entire career at the club, but never had the list of suitors that his former captain has had. And yet hes still here.In an era of so many different priorities for professional footballers, Steven Gerrard, when faced with the exact same considerations, thought about leaving  and stayed. Im sure there are plenty wholl say that he was wrong, the ones who measure the worth of careers exclusively in medals and trophies. And only the player himself will know whether he harbours any regrets. As supporters, we can only speak for ourselves. To me, hes a throwback  in the seventies or eighties, in the 21st century, it doesnt matter, nothing would have been different (except for maybe a dodgy moustache to rival the likes of Souness, Case, McDermott and the rest). He would have been a one-club man in any era because you cant deny who you are. Personally, and sadly, Im convinced that hes the last of his kind. There will always be the chance, however remote, that the club might unearth a similar talent someday, but I highly doubt theyll have the kind of loyalty and love for the club that Gerrard has shown by repeatedly staying put when greater riches and rewards awaited elsewhere. Its something that goes beyond hollow words and, in some ways, marks him out as a legend even more than the goals, the performances and the memories.And I think that's something worth reflecting on in this, the week of his testimonial, and as we reach the end of a summer that was defined by another talented player very publically agitating for a move. So the next time Luis Suárez says something in the press that pisses you off, or his departure eventually comes to pass, instead of getting mad, try to focus on what we have rather than what we've lost. Try to focus on the reality that one of the best players in the world has repeatedly passed up easier glories for a decade to stay at this club. And then hope like hell that we'll see his like again.