A BRIDGE TOO FAR: Steven Gerrard is abused by Chelsea fans. Pic: David Rawcliffe/Propaganda
MANY Reds looked to the heavens before Liverpool took to the pitch on Sunday. Despite all the bravado, we needed a miracle to win the Premier League. But rather than a thumbs up from the big guy above, instead we saw a small plane buzzing around Anfield carrying a banner reading: “Manchester United 20 Steven Gerrard 0”.
Ignoring the fact that it doesn’t make very much sense – Manchester United have had 136 years to win those titles, Gerrard 16; they’re a football club, he’s one man – it highlighted a strange phenomenon in the English game.
Fans will always take delight from the failure of their rivals, it’s part of football and always will be. And no-one’s been on the end of more jokes this season than seventh-placed Manchester United and their now sacked ex-manager David Moyes.
But Gerrard has to now be running Moyes a close second for the internet memes, the songs, the banners and the jokes.
His slip against Chelsea that allowed Demba Ba to score the goal and secure the Anfield win over Liverpool that ultimately was the pivotal point in the title race has been celebrated like a World Cup winner by fans up and down the country ever since.
On Sunday the song about the slip was heard in games involving Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Newcastle fans were at it too at Anfield. But it’s nothing new. He’s routinely a target for abuse – much of it well over the line of what passes for the dreaded ‘banter’.
And all this despite Gerrard being one of the most consistent performers for club and country. All this despite the Scouser being the inspiration behind one of the unlikeliest title challenges in years. And all this despite the fact that in a month’s time, the 33-year-old will captain England in the World Cup and many of those same fans will cheer Gerrard to the rafters if he scores a goal in the white of England rather than the red of Liverpool.
Gerrard has consistently given his all for England in 14 years of playing for his country, clocking up 109 caps. No doubt he can take a joke, but when he hears, sees and reads the base level of abuse he attracts – the songs about his children’s parentage for example – or when he sees himself routinely refereed to as ‘thug’ for a bar fight six years ago – does there come a time where he thinks “f*** this” – even subconsciously?
He’s only human after all. And he might wonder why the fact that he is in the main a family man who keeps to himself and does his fair bit of charity work doesn’t attract quite the same prominence as his mistakes.
Gerrard might also look at David Beckham and wonder why he is – and was – a national darling. The cringe-inducing ‘Golden Balls’ played for a widely-hated Manchester United, acted like a pop star, lapped up photoshoots and endorsements and kicked out at a player in a World Cup. Yet he still retains a hero status, and even enjoyed a brief, bizarre spell as an England cheerleader, appearing on the touchline with no apparent role.
Gerrard’s never enjoyed the same adulation from the national football fan collective, yet clearly most people in the game respect him, and his achievements, which include two FA Cups, two League Cups, a Champions League, and a UEFA Cup. He’s also a one-club man, albeit that he has been tempted to leave Liverpool and even – as he is so often reminded – handed in a transfer request.
The Liverpool captain was rightly named in the Premier League team of the year, voted for by his fellow professionals and Sam Allardyce – an unlikely ally for a Scouser – even expressed his desire to see him lift the title before his West Ham side faced Manchester City on Sunday.
Gerrard has inspired from a holding midfield position for Liverpool, and even against Newcastle, when he looked a burnt-out shadow of the man who had rallied his troops so successfully in recent weeks, he still delivered two of his peerless free kicks – finished off by Daniel Agger and Daniel Sturridge – to ensure Liverpool finished the season with a victory.
When England kick off against Italy, the nation will no doubt hope Gerrard can inspire the Three Lions like he inspired Brendan Rodgers’ team in a campaign that exceeded all expectations.
His boss for the summer – our old friend Roy Hodgson – even made a point in public of providing a rallying cry for his downhearted skipper, telling the media: “Steven is extremely mentally strong, and extremely proud. He loves Liverpool but he loves England and I don’t have any doubt that he won’t be as good as he ever has been in this World Cup.”
Hodgson has to say that. But Gerrard’s body language – he barely celebrated Liverpool’s goals on Sunday – suggests a man at war with himself; a player torn by his emotions and – maybe – a man sick of the stick coming from all angles.
What Gerrard needs now is an arm round and some respect. What he’s getting is something completely different. A funny old game indeed. Or is it just a funny old country?
crap article and a Liverpool fan wanting some sympathy for what was a sh*t end to the season.
Liverpool fans can all point to a new dawn….So did Newcastle fans and Blackburn Rovers fans….where did they eventually end up??
People crucified Beckham for being sent off in the world cup!!! it hasn’t been plain sailing…However he has built his reputation to a level which won titles for Man Utd.
If Gerrard hadn’t cocked up, he would have had the same adulation….The respect you talking about……The press would have adored his leadership…..
Rather we are sitting here with fans mocking him, for what was ultimately the slip which cost the title!!! Liverpool fans will have to live with it and suck it up!
Amz
So Beckham won the league on his own did he? It’s a team game. Not the brightest are you son?
Dear Amz,
Of course it’s written by a Liverpool fan, the site title kinda gives it away, are you lost?
As for wanting sympathy, we don’t need it, in fact now the excitement and disappointment has died down a little and we can properly look back on last season then the positives FAR outweigh the negatives.
Is it a “new dawn”, well we shall see, however, the club has been on an upward curve for some time now so the signs are very encouraging; which is why the likes of you are so worried.
We will have also learnt a great deal from this season, so something else for you to worry about.
Sure Stevie G. slipped at a crucial point but if you want to focus on individual mistakes then consider this; if Sterling’s clearly onside but disallowed goal against City had actually stood then, all other things being equal, that on its own would have reversed the title positions. Mistakes also happen all over the place all season by every team and yet you want to mock Gerrard with such venom? Makes one wonder why the OTT delight? Why people will pay to have a plane fly with a personal, and pointless, slight?
Simple really, again it’s because you are worried; your gloating belies your fear. It’s the type of nervous, hysterical laughter that those facing danger exhibit. Even your own mocking feeds your fear as it concedes that but for a slip we would have had the title….. deep down you’re afraid, you are very afraid.
A crap comment by (I presume) a United fan trying to distract themselves from an abject campaign, a squad in serious need of an overhaul and record levels of owner imposed debt.
Sure it was a shit end to the season, but only in contrast to how glorious the rest of the season was. We still came out on top of the “most ridiculous amount of fun in one season” league, don’t you worry. The only league that really counts at the end of the day for anyone with a maturity level greater than a 10 year old.
I think the guys summed it up a few weeks ago when they said that if we won the league it would ruin the excuses that managers and supporters of other clubs tell themselves for not winning it (i.e. you need an Oil Sheik load of money). I think our run this year has really rattled the supporters of other sides and they were more than happy to see us fall short in the end because the brilliance of the belief coursing through the side and the supporters was deeply unsettling for them. This is the reason that everyone is jumping on our talisman’s back, they are afraid, very afraid, of the beast that has been awoken from its slumber.
Amz, you can hope that we will fall back down the table next year but lets just say that I, and I think I speak for most of the guys on here, am quietly confident we will be alright. Oh, and good luck with the crazy Dutchman!
it never ceases to amaze me how much other fans worry about us and how little I care about them and their clubs. Even Utd fans who really should have no need or time for any other club worry about us far more than enjoying their success. It’s just utterly bizarre and shows how shallow they really are.
I’m concerned about Chelsea and Mourinho going for the least goals conceded record etc etc but that’s about as far as it goes with other clubs. I just can’t be bothered.
Rodgers has a big challenge for next season. go for it man. And lets continue laughing at the pathetic fans from these other clubs.
Played 13 won 11 drawn 1 lost 1. I’ll take that crap ending every year.
You threw in for that plane didn’t you, Amz? Be honest mate…
Imagine last season when we finished 7th, if fellow Liverpool fans had paid for a plane to fly over Old Trafford with a message saying ‘Liverpool 5 Ferguson 2’ or whatever. Imagine it! I’d feel ashamed. Utd fans should be going into hiding.
Utd fans have always been shameless. Truly pathetic fan set.
Steven Gerrard is a great player and leader and although I’m a Liverpool fan, I am none the less at a loss to understand the vitriol regularly directed towards him, did however think the United Banner was funny , if not a bit pathetic.
I’ve seen great players from our greatest rivals and wouldn’t dream of haranguing Cantona, Charlton, Beckham, Terry, Lampard, Henry, these are great players and deserve an degree of respect.
The song the Everton fans used to sing about Stevie G not being the true Father of his two daughters aged 5&6 was despicable, for Gods sake, those girls had to stand on a school playground and have that related to them, just cannot believe grown me could stoop so low.
The man isn’t asking for sympathy, just the respect that a great player and the Captain of England should be afforded.
Christ but your a chavvy little dick aren’t you sonny? You don’t get respect without giving some. That’s why you and yer sour faced jealous little girlfriends don’t ever get any. Stevie G does.
so it was gerrard’s slip that cost the title, not Mignolet flapping at the cross against Aston villa, or Kolo Toure doing his brother a favour at West Brom?
You are a child.
no one cares about ing-er-lund do they ?
Totally agree!
Stephen is such an asset to Liverpool Football Club that they just cannot afford to miss him for the next few seasons at least.
We saw this season the damage done to our defence through loosing Carra.
But Stevie is also so much more than just a fantastic player. We all know really that it was Gerrard’s leadership that won us the European Cup in Istanbul, and I believe, and is so deserved the role, is the right man to lead our team to their first Premier League Title.
He must feel he is closer to it now than ever before, and it’s this fact that I think we will see him ‘stick it out’ for at least another season, and then, if we have a good run in Europe and the domestic competitions, and he’s still doing a job for England, who knows how long he can go on for?
And for the haters? You can say whatever about the footballer, but do remember, he does so much for charity and the area as a whole. I can think of no better ambassador to Liverpool than Stevie, and it seems he’s visiting a children’s hospital on a weekly basis.
I recall a saying from many years ago that goes something like “To be born a Gentleman is a privilege, but to become a Gentleman is an achievement.”
…………..Next year eh mate!
Y.N.W.A.
Thanks for taking the time time to troll a LFC site AMZ – understandable – there not much happening at MUFC at the mo is there.
Get used to that. :-)
Good article!
I’d also add that isn’t Gerrard the only player to have scored in all 4 cup finals? i.e. CL, UEFA, FA and League.
In 2009 Zidane stated Gerrard was the best player in the world in his opinion.
Not too bad I’d say.. Deserves more respect as you’ve said.
I for one would be so happy to see Gerrard pull out of the England squad at the last moment as a big fuck you to these fucking nut job fans who one moment hate him and next want to blow him.
Only one set of fans will truly love Gerrard and that’s the Red side of Liverpool.
Makes me laugh how many haters of liverpool act like they failed. only 1 team did better and that was with the help of bad offside rulings and billions of cash. They set out to target 5th hopefully pushing for champions league and look what happened. 2nd in the league. hate all you want. and for the steven gerrard jokes?????? get a life all you people slaying him for 1 mistake in 16 years, which ba was already a good yard ahead and the pass to steve was terrible and was very hard to control. as a united fan all we could really do is watch… we would be hypercritical if we were to mention history and we slayed liverpool fans for years. liverpool becoming great again is not only good for their fans, but its good for england and the champions league having better and stronger teams on the big stage.
to many childish fans in football.
It was very selfless of ‘Amz’ to further illustrate your point by posting a gutteral comment (presumably ironically).
For a player to have a spoof version of a song, he must first have a song. I’m made up we haven’t got a song together about that fella… You know the one… Who manages Chelsea.
I kind of see what Amy’s getting at with that response.
Sometimes as a Liverpool fan it seems like we have an issue dealing with things as they are, here and now. We’re alway looking to the bright future or our glorious past when, in this case, the present is where we need to look.
The fact is, with 4 games to go, we should have won the league. People can say what they want about money spent and squad depth but if Gerrard doesn’t slip, we most likely draw with Chelsea, we most likely beat Palace and we beat Newcastle and we win the league by a point. Other fans will sing just like we would sing if Frank Lampard slipped, if John Terry wears a Chelsea kit after they win the Champions League and doesn’t play the world goes mad and we never hear the end of it. This is football. Logic doesn’t alway come into it. Gerrard isn’t some special case. This could be anyone! If Roy Keane had of done this I’d have laughed my ass off but still cheered him as the captain of Ireland. We are no different. The world doesn’t have it in for us because we’re Liverpool. The world is laughing because of a cruel twist of fate and the fact that, that slip cost us the league.
Who’s Amy? Most likely?
I agree with a lot of that, but I do think it ignores the fact that Gerrard has been a target for fans of other clubs for a long time prior to *that* slip, attracting levels of vitriol normally reserved for arch-villans such as Ronaldo, Beckham back in the day and latterly Suarez. In all the other cases you can sort of understand where the antipathy comes from even if I might personally decry it, but it’s always genuinely puzzled me what Gerrard has done to provoke the same sort of antipathy. He’s not perfect, but he doesn’t kick lumps out of people, or play act, and he’s not a serial diver or even perennially successful. It’s all a bit weird. And being captain of England and never having won the league, I’m surprised that the levels of schadenfreude were what they were after his slip and subsequent tears. Some level of piss-taking is to be expected, but social media and, it seems, the country’s stadia, are awash with it. All a bit wank, to be honest.
I can not, and will not accept that Stevie was the main reason that we did not win the title this year. In fact, Stevie is probably the main reason Liverpool had such a GOOD season! (to mention one game, his 2 assists in a game that seemed to be dead in the water, against Newcastle)
The blame must be shared by every game we lost points on, and every player in the team who slipped up throughout the season, for example, Henderson’s sending off and subsequent suspension.
I’m afraid Lucas coming back, half fit from injury and in need of games, maybe not mentally prepared, didn’t cut the mustard as Henderson’s natural replacement just now.
Every point dropped this season is to blame, and that can not be put on the shoulders of one man. There are 11 men out there on the pitch.
If you really want to be a smiling LFC supporter this time of season, focus of the positives rather than negatives.
Lots of long-standing records have been smashed at Anfield this season and we have one hell of a lot going forward to next season, with the anticipated introduction of some new players in the summer (with some great names already mentioned). So I for one, just can’t wait for next season.
My outlook for next year is that we WILL be premier league winners, and it WILL be the crowning glory for Mr Gerrard & Co.’s career.
Y.N.W.A.
For Amz. You are a WUM tool. Go back to your own team’s site – whoever they are…..
Gerrard is the best all-round midfielder in the league – this at 33!!! Plus, forget the slip,
a certain Toure square pass made a major contribution to our position going into the
last 4 0r 5 games – perhaps if this hadn’t happened then we’d have seen out Palace.
Although, all teams can make these excuses which are ultimately pretty reductive –
we merely missed out by the smallest of margins – over an ENTIRE season, not one slip,
pass, crossbar, offside.
Fear not – the future is all ‘Red’.
I would not lower myself to reply to the inane comments posted by Amz. It is so obvious he is a care in the community individual.