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Brutal and bonkers. Even during the closing days of an illustrious, incredible Liverpool career, Steven Gerrard remains as captivating an audience off the pitch as on it.

The long goodbye for the Reds skipper reaches a conclusion this week with his Anfield farewell followed by a final outing for the club at Stoke City next Sunday.

Next stop Los Angeles. All roads, though, are likely to lead back to L4.

It says much about his unshakeable bond with Liverpool Football Club that even before his official leaving, the 34-year-old is already talking about coming back.

That, though, is only if Gerrard believes he won’t threaten the astonishing legacy he will leave behind.

“If I’m in a position that I feel I am good enough and can contribute and help to this club and do a good job as a manager and the role is offered to me, I would consider it really seriously,” says the Reds captain.

“If in five or 10 years time I get offered it and I don’t feel I am good enough, and there is a danger of ruining my reputation or showing myself up, I won’t go near it.

“This is a brutal club to get it wrong at. You see what happened, for example with Roy Hodgson.

“He never got enough time, in a short space of time and he was out.

“You have got to be ready for it, you have to have the right backing, a certain amount of time to get it right.

“A lot of things have to be considered before you take on a role like that, and you have to be good enough.”

'I've been making notes of manager one-liners for years'

Gerrard is undeterred despite 17 years of witnessing how those who have sat in the Anfield hotseat have ultimately been tortured by the efforts to place Liverpool back on their perch.

“I must be a bit bonkers, I must have that inside me,” he says. “I don’t want to sit here and say ‘yes, I want to be a manager or coach’.

“I’m certainly not going to say no to that, I am going to try and get my qualifications while I have more time and see what happens and what opportunities are out there when I come back.”

Gerrard has already been planning ahead, taking his UEFA B coaching licence and keeping notebooks in recent years containing the best advice from the various managers he was worked under.

“What I have tried to do is to take little bits and write notes on them all and keep an eye on the sessions the players have liked,” he says.

“I always try and remember the one liners or the bits of advice whether that’s good or bad try and log it all try and take a little piece of the good ones I’ve worked with.

“It’s not a big suitcase full of them but it’s enough and there’s some important stuff in there that might help me in the future.

“I might never read it but you spend an awful lot of time in hotels so it’s quite easy to make some notes.”

Gerrard is looking forward to spending a little less time holed up in rooms when he moves to MLS side LA Galaxy after the end of the season.

After so long as arguably Merseyside’s most famous local resident, he is craving the anonymity offered by the star-studded California city.

“It is hard being a Liverpool player and handling yourself off the pitch – being a professional off the pitch – so I am looking forward to less intensity,” he admits.

“It has been very difficult for me with the children doing certain things like swimming lessons, or dancing lessons or going for meals or to a coffee shop, to be able to walk down the street with them without being asked a question.

“If you are doing well, the fans want to know the reasons why, they want insights off you.

“If it’s the opposite, and it’s not going well, they want to know what’s going on and why.

“Then you have the blue side which is constant, aggressive behaviour at traffic lights, on motorways and everywhere else. It’s a big challenge on the pitch and a big challenge off the pitch.”

“I am looking forward to being able to breathe and play football under a bit less pressure and going back to the days before I was at the first team at Liverpool where you really enjoyed your football and there was not that responsibility and that pressure.”

After so long as Liverpool’s talisman, it’s surely the least Gerrard deserves.