Former England defender Rio Ferdinand has accused Liverpool of being disloyal to Steven Gerrard by allowing him to leave for LA Galaxy at the end of his career.
Gerrard came through the Melwood academy, made his debut as an 18-year-old and went on to represent the Reds on more than 700 occasions, playing pivotal roles in winning not only the FA Cup but most famously the Champions League. Though the Premier League title alluded him, the midfielder will go down as one of the greatest players to grace the Anfield turf.
After 17 years on Merseyside, the club captain was allowed to leave for the United States, joining LA Galaxy in the MLS having not been offered a new deal by Liverpool. And Ferdinand, using the time his former England international team-mate 'flirted with the idea' of joining then-recently acquired Chelsea before ultimately staying put, has claimed the Reds didn't 'give him' the loyalty that he once showed them.
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"He's been loyal to them, he had that obscene offer we're hearing from Chelsea," Manchester United legend Ferdinand said on his FIVE YouTube channel. "They courted him, they tried every which way they could through players and what not trying to get him and unsettle him. He became unsettled, flirted with the idea a little bit, but actually, loyalty probably made him stay at Liverpool.
"Whatever happened, he was courted by Chelsea. He decides to stay, and then he gets towards the end of his career and the club don't want to give him a new deal. Bearing in mind [he's] arguably the club's best-ever player, been apart of iconic moments at the football club and would have had so much to offer young players staying there from a culture, a mentality and somebody they can look at and identify as a local lad, but they let him go to LA Galaxy."
Now managing Aston Villa, Gerrard has gotten off to a successful start to his managerial career, helping Rangers win their first Scottish Premiership title in 10 years, and doing so without losing a match, before returning to the Premier League. But despite these achievements away form Anfield, Ferdinand believes that Liverpool should have offered him a 'player-coach' contract and 'groom him' to become the club's future manager.
Gerrard did, however, return to the club after his playing career ended, to coach the under-18s, before leaving for Rangers a year later.
"There was the ability for him to stay there as a player-coach and groom him into being a coach in the system that they've got or a manager, but they chose to do something totally different and allowed him to go to LA Galaxy," Ferdinand added. "So when you talk about loyalty maybe if the club were being shown an element of loyalty there they might have gone, you know what, because of that loyalty he's showing us, we're going to give him a bit back at the end of his career."
