*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

[sledger]

 

[Ikki]

...

You miss my point. Whether Terry's fans believe he is great or not I don't really doubt - they're his fans. But why would a neutral really like him seeing as he impregnated his teammate's missus and had a racist charge against him. He's such a **** he can't be invited back to the national team because of it.

Not even comparable. All and sundry in the game respect Gerrard.

Incredibly loyal player who tried to force a move to Chelsea until he received a million death threats

He admitted wanting to leave crossed his mind but he withdrew his transfer request. Anything else is just sour grapes - which I guess is understandable from an Arsenal perspective (see: RVP, Cole, Nasri, Cesc, Clichy, etc) .

 

[GIMH]

Yeah the death threat thing a bit of a an exaggeration really

 

[Eds]

Incredibly loyal player who tried to force a move to Chelsea until he received a million death threats

Haha, yep, that's why he's stayed at Liverpool his whole career.

Don't happen to run the @FreeSuarez account do you?

 

[GIMH]

The death threats were in 04 when Chavs were in for him but he hadn't requested a transfer. Then the following year it was reported that he was off then the next day signed a new deal.

 

[sledger]

It was more than just reported that he was off tbh, he expressly stated that he wanted out.

 

[BoyBrumby]

TBF whatever one thinks of Gerrard as a human being he's clearly defamed by any comparison to Captain Racist, who is a genuinely loathsome individual.

 

[GIMH]

It was more than just reported that he was off tbh, he expressly stated that he wanted out.

Well the story was that he was forcing the club's hand in their talks, and 24 hours later they had a new deal on the table. The year he seemed more likely to leave was 04 when they had been floundering and his reputation had emerged off an incredible season. That was when he got death threats.

I mean obviously he considered it but ultimately to me it does seem petty to use it as a question to his loyalty when he's been there his whole career despite only a couple of title challenges and being a player most clubs would have snapped up given half the chance. He turned down Bayern a couple of years back too.

I think players like Gerrard deserve commending in this day and age. They are few and far between, you've also got the likes of Giggs, Scholes, Carragher, Terry, but they are a rare breed. But in Gerrard's case as I said he could have gone anywhere and given the relative lack of success compared to Terry, Giggs etc it is something to be applauded, IMO

 

[BoyBrumby]

Grew up a bluenose too, didn't he?

 

[sledger]

TBF whatever one thinks of Gerrard as a human being he's clearly defamed by any comparison to Captain Racist, who is a genuinely loathsome individual.

Indeed, though the purpose of me making this comparison was to highlight the fact that unless someone's a follower of either Chelsea/Liverpool, it seems they're unlikely to posses a great deal of positive sentiment for Terry/Gerrard, recognition of their footballing abilities notwithstanding.

I, for instance, recognise Gerrard as being a very good player. But would he make a list of my favourite (non-Arsenal) players? Not in a million years. And I suspect that is the case amongst plenty of non-Liverpool fans.

 

[Uppercut]

Well the story was that he was forcing the club's hand in their talks, and 24 hours later they had a new deal on the table. The year he seemed more likely to leave was 04 when they had been floundering and his reputation had emerged off an incredible season. That was when he got death threats.

I mean obviously he considered it but ultimately to me it does seem petty to use it as a question to his loyalty when he's been there his whole career despite only a couple of title challenges and being a player most clubs would have snapped up given half the chance. He turned down Bayern a couple of years back too.

I think players like Gerrard deserve commending in this day and age. They are few and far between, you've also got the likes of Giggs, Scholes, Carragher, Terry, but they are a rare breed. But in Gerrard's case as I said he could have gone anywhere and given the relative lack of success compared to Terry, Giggs etc it is something to be applauded, IMO

It demonstrates that it's worth sticking with local players, because they in turn tend to stick with the club. That's why the plastic Manyoo fans saying we should get rid of Welbeck and/or Cleverley are short-sighted pricks that need to **** off.

 

[sledger]

Nobody would take Cleverley anyway

 

[Cabinet96]

And in the case of Welbeck and Cleverley, they might not mind being rotational players anyway. Carl Jenkinson is a similar case at Arsenal.

 

[GIMH]

Grew up a bluenose too, didn't he?

Not sure. That pic of him in an Everton shirt does the rounds often but someone told me it was after a schoolboy game where he had swapped shirts. Never been arsed to look into it further.

Carragher and Owen did for sure. As did once a blue always a blue Wayne Rooney.

 

[Ikki]

He turned down Bayern a couple of years back too.

The start of last year as well.

Grew up a bluenose too, didn't he?

According to Stevie, his uncle's doing to get his dad peeved.

 

[Furball]

Not sure. That pic of him in an Everton shirt does the rounds often but someone told me it was after a schoolboy game where he had swapped shirts. Never been arsed to look into it further.

Carragher and Owen did for sure. As did once a blue always a blue Wayne Rooney.

His cousin died at Hillsborough; while there's a few divided families on Merseyside when it comes to footballing loyalties I'm sure I've read something from Gerrard where he's talked about his cousin and growing up supporting Liverpool.

 

[Furball]

I think players like Gerrard deserve commending in this day and age. They are few and far between, you've also got the likes of Giggs, Scholes, Carragher, Terry, but they are a rare breed. But in Gerrard's case as I said he could have gone anywhere and given the relative lack of success compared to Terry, Giggs etc it is something to be applauded, IMO

I'm not ****ting on his loyalty here, but how many teams could realistically have signed Gerrard anyway? At his peak Liverpool would have demanded a fortune for his services (easily in excess of £30m I reckon), and the only English clubs that could realistically have afforded him would have been Man Utd and Chelsea, and latterly Man City. A move to Manchester United was always going to be a non-starter and it's not really the done thing in England for whatever reason for players to move between the top clubs.

Yeah he could have demanded a move, particularly during the latter Benitez/Hodgson/Dalglish shambles, but it would have been absolutely impossible for him to do so without looking like a complete ****.

 

[GIMH]

Could have gone abroad though, no?

 

[Uppercut]

And in the case of Welbeck and Cleverley, they might not mind being rotational players anyway. Carl Jenkinson is a similar case at Arsenal.

Yeah definitely. We really benefited from having average but experienced youth players around to fill in during the '06-'10 years. O'Shea, Brown, Fletcher etc.

I hate the "solve problems by getting rid of players" mentality generally. It's a problem that Cleverley has to play too many games because buying midfielders is against our religion, but Cleverley himself isn't the problem.

 

[Furball]

Could have gone abroad though, no?

Who to?

Barcelona produced a few pretty decent midfielders, Real Madrid were a joke outfit for Gerrard's peak and I'm not sure Bayern could have afforded him in 2005. None of the big Italian clubs would have been in a position to sign him either.