With a new four-year deal worth £100,000 a week he hopes to bury this incredible saga and move on. That could prove more complicated than his decision to stay at home.At best, both Gerrard and Liverpool have emerged as indecisive, and the repercussions could be even worse for both sides. "He doesn't need nightclubs now," said the former Liverpool manager, "He can own them when his career is over." Two years later, at the age of 23, he was Liverpool captain.Gerrard dedicated himself to Liverpool and to his family, and it was to them he turned for guidance when the crisis enveloped him on Tuesday. He could easily have immersed himself in the trappings of his position and was heading that way until G?rd Houllier delivered a few home truths in 2001.
Loyalty carries a great weight with the working-class lad from the tough Bluebell estate in Huyton, who still leaves two tickets at the Anfield box office for his former primary school teacher whenever Newcastle (his teacher's favourite team) visit Liverpool.He is as intense about every aspect of his professional career as his stern expression on the pitch suggests, though is nowhere near as dark and sullen as he appears off it. But he is also a complex, studious soul, whose pride was inevitably damaged by Liverpool's initial reluctance to offer him a new four-year contract when negotiations finally opened last Wednesday. When he saw his No 8 shirt burning outside Liverpool's Melwood training complex on Tuesday, and an out-pouring of anger that only Wayne Rooney had prompted on Merseyside before, Gerrard's reluctance even to consider a new deal at Anfield wavered.Ultimately, when the moment of separation arrived, he concluded the reverence he receives from his boyhood club meant more than winning a title with Chelsea or Real Madrid ever could "I have gone with my heart," he said yesterday. He stepped closer to the precipice this time, going so far as to admit to wanting out, but the decision and the reasons behind it remain as true now as when Roman Abramovich first turned his head during Euro 2004.Liverpool's figurehead is single-minded in his ambition, a trait that forced him to look elsewhere in search of the league championship medal he craves. "I love the club and I love the supporters and that is what it boiled down to." That was the explanation he provided for pulling back from the brink last June. I wanted my future sorted out as soon as possible after the Champions' League final and when that wasn't the case, the longer it went on, the more misunderstandings there were There was confusion and doubt in my mind. Gamut was the four-legged friend, burning away all his rivals from the front of the Princess of Wales's Stakes field for his pre-eminent local trainer, Sir Michael Stoute "I didn't really want to go on but decided to," Fallon said "My first thought was there might have been a false start I kicked on when I saw the Channel 4 camera truck go on He is a really good horse on his day.
I don't want to get into attaching blame to anyone."If I blame anyone, it's myself. Instead of digesting an expected £32m windfall, however, Parry and the chairman David Moores met Gerrard at the club's Melwood training ground yesterday afternoon to finalise a four-year contract worth £100,000 a week.No get-out clauses exist in Gerrard's new deal, which will be officially announced tomorrow. This is an attempt by the midfielder to convince supporters he is committed to the club for life and has no intention of putting either himself or the club through another transfer ordeal next year.There were apologies all around Anfield as Liverpool's European Cup-winning captain and Parry admitted that they had misread the other's intentions, with Gerrard disillusioned by the club's delay in presenting him with an extended contract.The player feared Liverpool's hesitancy was a sign that his manager Rafael Benitez was prepared to sacrifice his prize asset in order to overhaul his first-team squad.After being convinced otherwise, Gerrard explained: "The last five or six weeks were the hardest of my life because I wrongly believed the club didn't want me. Liverpool had begun planning for life without their inspirational captain when the saga took its latest, unexpected twist. Incredulity spread from Anfield to the Bernabeu via Stamford Bridge yesterday morning when the England midfielder telephoned his adviser, Struan Marshall, to announce he could not sever ties with his boyhood club after all.