The_Rock wrote:Well guess more & more think that gerrard will leave.
http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=1339382004
Quality of Mersey strained as Benitez and Gerrard weigh options
JON HOTTEN
DAVID Beckham might have drawn many hundreds of lovesick Japanese girls to an airport for just a glimpse of his gorgeousness, but Steven Gerrard offered a different measure of football stardom last Monday. His return from injury to Liverpool’s reserve XI at Telford’s Bucks Head ground brought 6,280 people out on a late autumn night.
The crowd was a stadium record, and if the young men of Wolves’ second team were in any doubt that the evening was a little out of the ordinary, Gerrard’s performance, when he took the field at half time, quickly dispelled them. Short of breath he may have been, short of class he was not. From his prescribed role just in front of the back four, some destructive passes and one graceful goalward surge essayed forth, and when he was substituted with a minute still to play, not many in the crowd or on the pitch felt short-changed.
Gerrard offered the expected platitudes to the press afterwards - Beckham beats him on sound bites as well as looks - but then he would not choose to expand on the complexity of his situation even if he were capable. It’s a signal of the accelerated speed at which the Premiership moves that both Gerrard and his manager Raphael Benitez might now be ambivalent about his future. A few brief weeks ago Liverpool without Gerrard was as unthinkable as an issue of Heat magazine without Beckham in it. He was a man hauling around his winded team like a spare tyre.
An emotional, gut decision had played its part in keeping him at Liverpool, yet there have been subtle shifts at Anfield since the summer. Gerrard has told the ubiquitous ‘pals’ that he is unsure if Benitez sees him as the team’s fulcrum. Equally ubiquitous ‘insiders’ have it that Benitez wants to buy two, perhaps three players, and the fee that Gerrard would command is the fastest way to realise that ambition.
These kind of rumours surround every big player of course, but the smoke signals often fuel some fire. A move would require both Gerrard and Benitez to position themselves with some subtlety within the media. These could be early skirmishes.
What is beyond doubt is that Benitez has bought Xabi Alonso as the motor of his midfield, and in the few games that they have played together, it has been Gerrard who has accommodated the Spaniard by moderating his game. Alonso was acquired when Gerrard appeared almost certain to be joining Chelsea; it is the England man’s u-turn that has caused the problem.
Between them, and in Gerrard’s absence, Benitez and Alonso have got Liverpool playing. Whilst no-one is under any illusion of a title thrust, they have been effective in the Champions League.
Suddenly the form of Real Madrid impacts upon Anfield. That Real covet Gerrard is no secret. Not even Abramovich is as greedy for players as Perez and Madrid; and their need for an aggressive midfielder is very real. That Michael Owen spoke publicly of a Gerrard phone call to him after he’d broken his Bernabeu duck, allied to the fact that Gerrard’s agents, SFX, helped to take Owen, Beckham and Woodgate to Spain, might be more significant.
It’s all smoke and mirrors, but Real have rarely needed more encouragement, and Patrick Vieira is now off their agenda.
Gerrard finds himself in much the same position as Owen.
Unlike Beckham, their talent has not yet been translated into major honours, and it is less likely to be at Liverpool than at England’s big three, or at Real. All of those four clubs would have Gerrard if they could, and the player would not be human if he had not dreamt, however idly, of how it might feel to partner Lampard or Vieira, or Zidane every week.
His heart lies on Merseyside though, no-one doubts that. Having exited a moribund side when he broke his metatarsal (a rare concession to fashion), Gerrard can return to one in which Milan Baros is scoring goals, Alonso and Luis Garcia occasionally touch the sublime and tough guys like John Arne Riise and Jamie Carragher are working genuinely hard. If Benitez could unscramble Harry Kewell’s circuits as capably as he has the mercurial Baros, Gerrard might relish his comeback even more. As it is, he must feel a little like a man returning to the office after six weeks off. The surroundings are utterly familiar, the dynamics almost imperceptibly altered.
In Benitez’s mind might be a need to free himself from a history that Houllier often felt was pulling him down. There is no shortage of ex-Liverpool men in the media letting everyone know exactly what is wrong with the club. Losing Owen and Gerrard, two totemic figures on Merseyside, might seem careless but it would allow the Rafa-lution to begin for real. It’s an exit strategy that could suit Gerrard too, clearing his conscience and allowing his glorious talent free reign, unencumbered by the expectations of a home where six thousand turn up for a reserve game.
That sort of brings it in perspective 40 mill would be great for us for new players but I love him and wouldnt want him to go. Look at the damage since Owen has gone, we really miss his goals and any one who says otherwise is thick.
So if Gerrard went we would miss the powerful driving force in our team, to a team like we seen yesterday no pride in the shirt, just picking up a dirty fat pay cheque every month
I feel like cryin mate to be honest I love my team so much and just want them to do well like the rest of us, and when you think we are making a step forward all of a sudden its 2 steps back. 
by 