Steven Gerrard has admitted that he felt like he was "heading for suicide watch" after the infamous slip that effectively cost Liverpool the 2013-14 Premier League title.
The former Reds skipper looked poised to realise his life-long dream of leading his hometown club to a first championship success since 1990, with Brendan Rodgers' men three points clear of Manchester City at the summit of the standings with just three games to play.
However, Liverpool, who were on an 11-game winning streak, were dramatically beaten by Chelsea at Anfield, with Demba Ba opening the scoring just before half-time. Fernando Torres then sealed the hosts' fate by sealing a 2-0 win for the visitors in the closing stages.
The pivotal moment of the game - and indeed the title race - had been Ba's opener, which had come after Gerrard had dramatically slipped while attempting to take possession of the ball some 40 yards from his own goal.
Writing in his autobiography, the Merseyside native has now admitted just how deeply affected he was by the part he played in Liverpool throwing away the title.
"I sat in the back of the car [after the game] and felt the tears rolling down my face," he reveals in an extract published by the Daily Mail.
"I hadn't cried for years but, on the way home, I couldn't stop. The tears kept coming. I can't even tell you if the streets were thick with traffic or as empty as I was on the inside. It was killing me.
"I felt numb, like I had lost someone in my family. It was as if my whole quarter of a century at this football club poured out of me. I did not even try to stem the silent tears as the events of the afternoon played over and over again in my head...
"I had wanted to win it with Liverpool for so long that, now it had gone again, I could not hold my emotion in check.
"I beat myself up. My head was all over the place. I had lived through many great moments in my career and achieved success beyond my most fevered boyhood dreams....
"I had also given absolutely everything of myself to Liverpool: in training, in almost 700 games, off the pitch, around the squad and as part of the club, the community and the city.
"I could not have done any more. I had squeezed out every last ounce of ambition and desire and hope inside me.
"Instead of hitting a long cross-field pass to set up a goal, making a decisive tackle or curling the ball into the back of the Chelsea goal to seal our victory, I had fallen over.
"The Kop, and the whole of Anfield, had sung 'You'll Never Walk Alone' again, of course, but, in the car, I felt isolated. I felt very alone...
"I did not feel like I had much hope left. It seemed like I was heading for suicide watch instead."
Gerrard spent one more season at Anfield but Liverpool endured a dismal 2014-15 campaign, which ended in an embarrassing 6-1 loss at Stoke City.
That was the former England skipper's last game for the club as he moved to MLS outfit LA Galaxy during the summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment