More on Gerrard
Gerrard's pain heightened by own goal and cup final defeat
By Oliver Kay
IT WAS ONLY A HANDSHAKE, but, as Jose Mourinho went through the painstaking process of commiserating with the Liverpool players one by one, you somehow knew that he would reach their captain last. Steven Gerrard was a reluctant participant in the scene, barely managing to hold eye contact as the Chelsea manager lingered over him a couple of seconds too long, yet there was no escape as that awkward clinch was caught on camera, simultaneously appearing on the big screen at the Millennium Stadium and in homes across the country.
Gerrard did not need that. Nor did he need what had preceded it, his unfortunate own goal allowing Chelsea back into the game and exposing him to the type of ridicule that even a less earnest professional sportsman would find grating. But nor, in the greater scheme of things, is he likely to have needed an experience as chastening as this to persuade him that his long-term future lies away from Anfield and, in all likelihood, in the blue shirt of Chelsea. Those oh-so-subtle hints from the football gods were really not necessary.
This will be portrayed in some quarters as the day that Gerrard's mind was made up once and for all but, even had Liverpool clung on to victory yesterday, his departure at the end of the season would have remained a probability. He has acknowledged that winning trophies with his home-town club would be preferable to doing so elsewhere but, even had he ended the day by lifting the Carling Cup, he would have been unlikely to regard it as the start of a new golden era for a club who trail Chelsea by 25 points in the Barclays Premiership. What will have heightened his sense of resignation is the way that the game unfolded. Liverpool's performance, cautious to an extreme after John Arne Riise's goal, was not one that would have filled him with glorious optimism. The longer it went on, the more it seemed that Gerrard and his team-mates were in danger of overextending themselves with their defensive efforts. So it proved in the 79th minute as, jumping to clear a free kick that Sami Hyypia was better placed to deal with, he succeeded only in glancing the ball past his own goalkeeper.
Chelsea's supporters found it very funny as you would singing "there's only one Steven Gerrard" and offering a standing ovation as he went to take a corner in front of them during extra time, but the man himself looked mortified. No player has done more for a single club over the past 18 months and, while Rafael Bentez is right to be concerned by his captain's public utterances and by the number of times he glares at less talented team-mates, no player seemed more devastated than Gerrard by Liverpool's defeat yesterday.
Gerrard, to his credit, mustered the energy to talk to a Sky Sports reporter as the Chelsea players were conducting their post-match celebrations, but the words were hard to find. "It's very painful," he said. "We have to pick ourselves up now and I have to pick myself up."
At the final whistle, having struggled to recapture the confidence that drained from him after the own goal, Gerrard had shaken hands with Frank Lampard. This was the first medal of Lampard's career (compared with the six won by his England team-mate, five of them in six months in 2001), but Gerrard knows that only one of them is likely to add substantially to that tally over the coming seasons as things stand. And, for all the Liverpudlian talk of love weighing more than money in Gerrard's mind, they know that, for their ambitious captain, silver is the most precious currency of all.
By Oliver Kay
IT WAS ONLY A HANDSHAKE, but, as Jose Mourinho went through the painstaking process of commiserating with the Liverpool players one by one, you somehow knew that he would reach their captain last. Steven Gerrard was a reluctant participant in the scene, barely managing to hold eye contact as the Chelsea manager lingered over him a couple of seconds too long, yet there was no escape as that awkward clinch was caught on camera, simultaneously appearing on the big screen at the Millennium Stadium and in homes across the country.
Gerrard did not need that. Nor did he need what had preceded it, his unfortunate own goal allowing Chelsea back into the game and exposing him to the type of ridicule that even a less earnest professional sportsman would find grating. But nor, in the greater scheme of things, is he likely to have needed an experience as chastening as this to persuade him that his long-term future lies away from Anfield and, in all likelihood, in the blue shirt of Chelsea. Those oh-so-subtle hints from the football gods were really not necessary.
This will be portrayed in some quarters as the day that Gerrard's mind was made up once and for all but, even had Liverpool clung on to victory yesterday, his departure at the end of the season would have remained a probability. He has acknowledged that winning trophies with his home-town club would be preferable to doing so elsewhere but, even had he ended the day by lifting the Carling Cup, he would have been unlikely to regard it as the start of a new golden era for a club who trail Chelsea by 25 points in the Barclays Premiership. What will have heightened his sense of resignation is the way that the game unfolded. Liverpool's performance, cautious to an extreme after John Arne Riise's goal, was not one that would have filled him with glorious optimism. The longer it went on, the more it seemed that Gerrard and his team-mates were in danger of overextending themselves with their defensive efforts. So it proved in the 79th minute as, jumping to clear a free kick that Sami Hyypia was better placed to deal with, he succeeded only in glancing the ball past his own goalkeeper.
Chelsea's supporters found it very funny as you would singing "there's only one Steven Gerrard" and offering a standing ovation as he went to take a corner in front of them during extra time, but the man himself looked mortified. No player has done more for a single club over the past 18 months and, while Rafael Bentez is right to be concerned by his captain's public utterances and by the number of times he glares at less talented team-mates, no player seemed more devastated than Gerrard by Liverpool's defeat yesterday.
Gerrard, to his credit, mustered the energy to talk to a Sky Sports reporter as the Chelsea players were conducting their post-match celebrations, but the words were hard to find. "It's very painful," he said. "We have to pick ourselves up now and I have to pick myself up."
At the final whistle, having struggled to recapture the confidence that drained from him after the own goal, Gerrard had shaken hands with Frank Lampard. This was the first medal of Lampard's career (compared with the six won by his England team-mate, five of them in six months in 2001), but Gerrard knows that only one of them is likely to add substantially to that tally over the coming seasons as things stand. And, for all the Liverpudlian talk of love weighing more than money in Gerrard's mind, they know that, for their ambitious captain, silver is the most precious currency of all.
posted by Wowbagger @ 6:44 PM
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