An Open Letter To Steven Gerrard

Dear Steven Gerrard,

I rarely trust rumours, but I must say that I'm shaken by the rumour linking you with an exit from Liverpool Football Club.

Without trying to question your loyalty towards the only club you have represented all these years, I think it's understandable if you really are considering playing elsewhere.

I'm a young fan so I haven't watched football for many many years, but throughout the ten years or so since I started watching football, I haven't seen a footballer more complete than Steven Gerrard.

You don't dribble like Ronaldinho, you don't run faster than Lionel Messi, and you don't have more titles than Zinedine Zidane. But to me and many other people I'm sure, you will always be the best.

Being such a great footballer, it comes as no surprise to me if you have the slightest thought of wanting to play for another club with possibly a better chance for you to add honours to your profile.

And with the calibre of yours, you can easily fit into any team. It's not as if you have to design a fancy brochure and distribute it all over Europe to attract offers.

Honestly, I can't see yourself playing for another Premiership side so I'll assume that you would consider a move abroad if and only if you decide to leave Liverpool one day.

So be it Real Madrid or be it Inter Milan, how many years can you play there?

Five?

How many domestic titles can you win with your new club?

Two? Three? Or four?

Unless you are gonna be there for a decade, you will never be able to do enough to overshadow your Liverpool career, even if you win more titles in a shorter period of time.

People will always associate you with Liverpool Football Club. I mean c'mon, you can ask a 5-year-old kindergarten student or a 50-year-old granny living next door, whenever your name is mentioned, everyone would picture a man wearing a red jersey with the Liverpool badge on it, running and screaming after scoring yet another amazing goal for Liverpool.

People always say that no player is bigger than a club but to me, Steven Gerrard is Liverpool!

You must be frustrated for Liverpool's lack of success in recent years. In fact, there are only the UEFA Cup in 2001, the Champions League in 2005, and the FA Cup success in the following year you can boast about.

I understand that you don't want to retire one day and look into your title collection, only to find out that you hadn't won a single league title.

It's gonna leave a permanent "knot" in your life, similar to Johan Cruyff's, for coming so close to winning the World Cup but wasn't quite close enough.

Liverpool Football Club owes you a lot for all the effort you've put in, for the heart you've committed, and for all the goals that have kept Liverpool alive for more than ten years.

Therefore, it can be a little too much to ask for if the club wants you to end your career there, to go through those extremely difficult times Liverpool are about to face, especially if the club fails to finish in the top four.

With the amount of money Manchester City are splashing, I wouldn't be surprised if they displace Liverpool to be the new member of "Big Four" in the near future.

Failure to finish in the top four would mean that Liverpool will need years to recover, as the team that finishes fourth cements itself with the money from Champions League qualification. And Liverpool will go on suffering from those debts.

That is when your biggest fear comes haunting you, you will probably retire as a player without a single league medal.

It is up to you really, Steven Gerrard. As a Liverpool fan, obviously I want you to end your career in Liverpool. But as a fan of yours, I want you to be remembered for many decades to come.

Ask yourself, how do you want people to look at you in fifty years?

A) A former Real Madrid (random example) midfielder that spent most of his career in Liverpool FC. He won a few Primera titles and was part of the team that consisted of former World Player of the Years such as Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo.

B) A one-club hero that served Liverpool throughout his career, undeniably the best Liverpool player of all time despite failing to win any league title. Steven Gerrard was the heartbeat of Liverpool FC and he remains one of the most underachieved and underrated footballer in the history of football.

Make your choice Stevie. Take note that David Beckham regrets leaving Manchester United and has told that he would stay and end his career in Manchester United if he could turn back time.

Not every player can achieve something like this, to only play for such a big club throughout one's entire footballing career. In my opinion, it means more than all the available major trophies in the world added together.

I'm going to make assumption again, but I think that if I were to ask Paolo Maldini whether the seven Serie A titles and five Champions League titles or having spent 25 years in only one club meant more to him, he would definitely pick the latter one.

Cheers.