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For all the talk about Steven Gerrard and Liverpool at his Aston Villa introduction this week, it should be remembered that he was once brave enough to leave.
It was during an interview with this newspaper and the Daily Telegraph in 2014 that Gerrard first mooted — completely out of the blue — that he may not sign a new contract at Anfield.
His management team were nervous about it. There was even an agreement reached with both titles not to put the statement in a headline.
But Gerrard knew exactly what he was doing and saying that day as he sat in a sports centre in Liverpool nominally to promote a new shade of Lucozade.
Steven Gerrard faced the media for the first time this week as first-team manager of Aston Villa
‘I won’t be retiring this summer,’ he said. ‘I will play beyond this season. We will have to wait and see if that’s at Liverpool or somewhere else.’
Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers thought the club captain would sign a new contract. He did not. He went to Los Angeles and a connection with his childhood club was abruptly severed.
So Gerrard knows his own mind and has some hard edges, too. They were occasionally on display as he sat behind a press conference table at Villa Park on Thursday.
A packed room greeted Gerrard, who showed his hard edges are still very much present
Occasionally those eyes narrowed and that has always
