Steven Gerrard has spoken to Liverpool’s official website about the decision to stay at Anfield and sign his new deal. Misunderstandings all round seem to have taken place, but in the end Gerrard went for silence to help him think. He said: "I had the whole of yesterday to think about my decision and what I was doing. I turned off my phone and my television and went through it all in my head again. After considering everything that’s gone on, I just couldn’t go through with it and leave this club. I never said I wanted to leave in the first place, but I’d felt I was being backed into a corner and had to push things on."
Gerrard continued: "I know it was going to look as though I wanted to go, but at one stage I thought I had no choice. When I thought about it more, I just wanted to stay. I admitted I’ve made mistakes and the club has acknowledged they’ve made some mistakes as well. But now we’ve sorted it out and I’m doing what I wanted to do all along, which is stay at Liverpool."
Whilst the noise of over 40,000 Liverpool fans at Anfield spurred Liverpool and Gerrard on to a victory over Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final, the noise from a few people in the last few days was too much for Gerrard. He sees Struan Marshall as his friend as well as his agent, and it was those closest to him that helped him sort the mess out and see what his true feelings were: "I’ve now apologised to Liverpool and they’ve apologised to me, which is important. I was left feeling so confused yesterday. I was receiving all kinds of advice and information from so many people, but I just had to sit down with my girlfriend and advisor and think it all through again for myself. I was just thinking ‘how have we got into this mess and what’s the best way out of it?’. I knew I had to do what I’d intended doing all along and sign a new contract."
It’s clear that the events of last summer, had carried on into the events of this summer. All of the doubts that were planted into Gerrard’s mind had remained. Last night though it eventually all came clear. He came to his senses, and made a decision that he now feels was 100% right: "I made the decision last night that I couldn’t leave this club. I love Liverpool so much. This is my club. My heart is with Liverpool. I don’t need to tell anyone that. Everyone who knows me can see how I feel. The last thing I wanted to do was leave, I just couldn’t do it."
Gerrard knows that he’s caused turmoil for a lot of Liverpool fans, and given ammunition to those who are always ready to criticise him. The thought of those supporters played a part in his decision: "My relationship with the supporters has always been fantastic and I knew a lot of people would be disappointed if I’d decided to go. I thought about the fans and the future. As I’d said all along, I never wanted to leave. I don’t want to go into details now about what happened over the last few weeks because the most important thing now is we can sort it out."
Finally, Gerrard spoke about how he wants to look forward now: "I’m going to sign a new contract and, like I’ve always done, will be doing everything possible to make Liverpool successful again. It’s been a bit of a mess but now we can sort it out and move forward. As I’ve said, we can all learn things from this. Now we all want to look forward."