Steven Gerrard has revealed that a discussion with his family prevented him from leaving Liverpool for Chelsea in July 2005.
Uncertainty shrouded the midfielder’s position at Liverpool despite captaining the club to Champions League glory just six weeks earlier.
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The idea of a possible exit ignited 12 months earlier when the boyhood Liverpool fan expressed his concerns of the club’s direction.
Gerrard was left bemused after a Liverpool side led by Gerard Houllier had finished a whopping 30 points behind champions Arsenal who completed an unbeaten Premier League season.
The midfielder felt his side were stagnating under the Frenchman while nouveau riche Chelsea were set to take a new and exciting turn under the incoming Jose Mourinho.
Houllier was subsequently replaced in the dugout by Rafa Benitez and that was enough for Gerrard to stay put for the 2004/05 season.
And it proved to be a masterstroke as the Reds’ skipper went on to inspire his side to Champions League glory in Istanbul.
Trouble in paradise
But that was not enough to turn the tide as Gerrard, who had just two years remaining on his deal, felt the club were not doing enough to tie him down to a new contract.
By the end of June 2005 Gerrard and club officials were at loggerheads with any negotiations over a deal off the table.
Gerrard then sent shockwaves across the Premier League by handing in a shock transfer request.
Liverpool fans were left angered and shell shocked by the news with some resorting to burning his shirt in front of live television cameras.
Chelsea threw a spanner in the works by tabling a £32m bid for the then 25-year-old which was rebuffed by the Merseyside club.
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Liverpool later informed Gerrard that a contract extension was in the offing if he wanted to stay, however Chelsea and Mourinho – who were now Premier League champions – were becoming frustrated.
Gerrard signed a new deal at Liverpool on July 6, 2005 to end all speculation over a possible exit.
Meanwhile, his relationship with the fans quickly mended and Gerrard was back to scoring a glut of goals for the Reds.
Recalling his summer of confusion and hesitation, Gerrard says leaving Liverpool at the time would have been a huge mistake.
Gerrard told The Overlap: “I think if you take into consideration my family’s situation, where I live, where I’m from, my career throughout Liverpool, the relationship I’ve still got now.
“I mean, they’ve been unbelievable to me. They do little things now where I think, ‘How are you even thinking about me now?’
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“Little tiny things, like they invite Lio (son) to a thing… they just go above and beyond to continue the relationship.
“So, 100 per cent, the answer would be yeah, I’d have regretted it for the rest of my life, I think.”
A family affair
The Liverpool legend revealed details of a discussion he had with his dad and brother that ultimately helped him make his decision.”
“It came down to a really important conversation, my head was just like a box of frogs,” he said. “I didn’t know whether Rafa wanted me or not, I didn’t know what was going to happen, and it was getting closer and closer to the, ‘Are you going to jump here or what?’
“I went to see my dad and my brother, who are two Liverpool fans, and they completely just took all the external out of it and just said, ‘If you go and win two or three Premier Leagues, or a European cup, with Chelsea or Inter Milan, or Real Madrid, will it be good?’
“And I went, ‘Yeah, of course it will be good, because you’ve won’. They said, ‘But will it be good or better than if you win one more trophy with Liverpool?’
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“And I said, ‘No, I’d feel better to do it with Liverpool’. They said, ‘Well, just make it all go away’, and it all went away.
“But it was that conversation, just taking away all the noise and the phone calls, and the agents, and the people at Liverpool, and the people at Chelsea, the Mourinho calls, just taking it all away and going, ‘What’s most important for you? Is it your family, is it the city, is it Liverpool Football Club?
“Or is it the next… just trying to chase a bit of success?’ And it was the stay, so I think I made the right decision, in terms of that connection.”
Gerrard went on to make 710 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 186 goals before leaving the club in 2015.
His final act in football came in a stint in MLS with LA Galaxy before hanging up his boots in 2016.
Gerrard will join the eSPORTY Breakfast Show on Tuesday April 7 – tune in between 6am and 10am!
