SOCCER: Liverpool were last night preparing to receive an improved offer from Chelsea for Steven Gerrard after the club captain's transfer request provoked a furious reaction among supporters on Merseyside.
Fans burnt a "Gerrard 17" shirt outside Anfield as tempers flared at the midfielder's perceived betrayal. They will hardly have been appeased by a claim from the 25-year-old midfielder, who has spent 17 years with the club, that the decision to ask for a move had been "the hardest I have ever had to make".
Chelsea will now step up their efforts to sign the player after seeing an initial £32 million bid, faxed to Anfield on Monday night, swiftly rejected. The Premiership champions are expected to table an offer of around £35 million in the next 24 hours. Real Madrid continue to monitor the situation but, by opening the bidding at such an elevated level, the Londoners hope to have deflected interest from the Bernabeu for good.
Whether an improved offer from Stamford Bridge proves more tempting to Liverpool remains to be seen, with the club suggesting that they will refuse to be rushed into parting company with the captain. Indeed they have not ruled out demanding players plus cash for Gerrard, with the former Blackburn winger Damien Duff uppermost in their thoughts.
Yet the departure of their captain and inspiration has proved a bitter blow. Gerrard's agent Struan Marshall of SFX telephoned the Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry yesterday to inform him that their contract offer, equating to £100,000 a week on a deal to run until 2009, was being rejected.
That confirmed the club's worst fears and prompted anguished scenes among supporters outside the Melwood training complex. "We really wanted Stevie to stay and there is genuine sadness that he has decided he must leave,"
Parry said. "I don't want there to be any recriminations and, on a personal level, I have no problem with Stevie whatsoever. He knows my feelings, though, and how disappointed I am that he's not staying. But this whole business needed a conclusion and now we've got that.
"We will move on. The club is still here and it is still strong, believe me. We will look round carefully with the money we get for Stevie because it is a big market with plenty of choice. We won't pay inflated prices - that won't happen - but, certainly, we will look to use the money to make Liverpool stronger than ever."
For his part Gerrard, who joined Liverpool as an eight-year-old and has made 282 appearances for the club, said: "The last six weeks have been the toughest of my life and it is the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I fully intended to sign a new contract after the Champions League final, but the events of the last five or six weeks have changed all that. I have too much respect for the club and the people at it to get involved in a slanging match."
That prepared statement posed as many questions as it answered, with the sudden deterioration in the relationship startling to behold. Liverpool's tardiness since the Champions League final was won in Istanbul on May 25th has clearly grated, though the manager Rafael Benitez was quick to point out on Monday that they had attempted to open talks three times over the course of last season and been told to wait until the end of the campaign on each occasion.
When discussions were started last Wednesday, the lack of an offer from Liverpool left Gerrard and SFX exasperated.
"I understood his frustrations last summer to do with perceived lack of success, but people may be thinking winning the Champions League is a pretty good mark of a club going in the right direction," Parry added. "It was about long-term commitment, and feeling this is the place he wanted to be and the place he could win trophies. Presumably he felt he could get success more readily elsewhere."
There was frustration and no little anger on Merseyside last night, with several supporters venting their spleen. As it was, Gerrard did not return to Melwood for the second session of the day though the anger quickly swept to nearby Anfield.
"He is supposed to be a boyhood Red," said Les Lawson, a spokesman for the Liverpool International Supporters' Club. "Yet he has turned down £100,000 a week and I am still paying off my credit card bill from going to Istanbul to cheer him on, as are thousands of others. He is going, but he is not going with his head held high."
The colour of Gerrard's club shirt next season will determine whether there is a new world order in football. Chelsea's decision to compete for Gerrard's signature and the bold manner in which they have entered the ring pits the nouveau riche against Real Madrid in spectacular style.
Chelsea, who are maintaining lines of communication with Liverpool without raising their declined first offer, are confident the one they have tendered will be sufficient to remove Real from the race.
They do, however, have contingencies and are engaged in a sideshow duel with Real over Lyon's Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien, who could be the consolation prize in the tug of war over Gerrard. Both clubs have tabled bids of £17.5 million which the French champions have rejected.
One player over whom Madrid and Chelsea have not wrestled is Shaun Wright-Phillips. Manchester City are expected to announce this week that the England winger will move to Chelsea in a £17 million deal.
Guardian Service
