All things are impermanent
The first time I read this statement in an Eckhart Tolle book, it jarred me. It couldn’t totally be true. As a society our focus is on security. We marry rather than date, we buy rather than rent, and we work for a steady paycheque rather than make our own way all for the same thing - that illusion of security. But marriages fail, homes are repossessed and people lose their jobs. All things are impermanent. This is one of the basis’ on which buddhism was built and when it sinks in, it’s actually somewhat comforting. Everyone and everything in my life will be gone one day. If I’m not gone first. With that knowledge, it’s a little easier to put one foot in front of another and live each day as it comes because nothing lasts forever.
So armed with this knowledge and a rational, sober mind, I should be ready for tomorrow, watching Steven Gerrard take the Anfield turf one more time, one last time. But I’m not ready. I’m bloody terrified. In his pomp, the Liverpool number 8 was a force of nature, like a tidal wave battering anything that came in his path. Witness Olympiakos 04, Milan 05, Inter 07, Old Trafford 09, and on and on it goes. In his prime, Stevie G made you lose your rationale and your logic. He made the impossible seem possible. It was not his tackling, his passing, his shooting, his tracking, his tactical nous - it was his desire. People will debate his merits as a footballer and as a midfield player for many years to come but there can be no debating that no one man has dragged a footballing giant to so many glorious victories on his own as Steven Gerrard. Zidane, Scholes, Lampard, Pirlo - some of his peers possessed more natural ability, some scored more goals, some made the right pass more often but none - not one - expended more energy or played with more passion.
But sadly, impermanence has reared its ugly head. Where once Gerrard played like a tidal wave, now he more often appears to be swimming against the tide, mind as sharp as ever, body no longer willing and able. 2013/14 provided an Indian summer that made it seem as though maybe he really could hold off father time, but stripped of his deep lying role with two pacy forwards to play through, this seasons SG has often looked slow, exposed, unable to impose himself on games. Thankfully his quality hasn’t left him. Indeed, his striking of a dead ball in the last 18 months is the best its ever been, with corners creating goals, free kicks hitting the back of the neck and pen after pen dispatched. In January when announcing his long goodbye, it felt like a year too soon. But as the season has faded and so too Stevie G, it’s seemed about right for all parties that captain fantastic depart leaving the Kop still wanting that little bit more, rather than play another year and become a bit part player, Frank Lampard at Manchester City. In hindsight, looking at the impact Steven has made throughout his 708 games for Liverpool, the idea he’d be happy to sit on the bench and make cameos here and there, starting the odd league game and featuring in the cups was ludicrous. It is not how I would want to remember him either, for that matter.
Which brings us to the question, how do we remember him? Granted I am biased because I never saw the great LFC sides in their pomp, but it’s hard for me to accept any argument that doesn’t conclude Steven Gerrard is the greatest Liverpool FC player in the clubs history. More than any other player at any other club, Gerrard has embodied Liverpool and carried us on his back for 17 years. Fowler, Owen, Torres, Suarez, Alonso, Hamann - world class players have come and gone in his time, and when they were at the club, we pushed forward and came close to winning things, sometimes even getting over the line. But then there’s Diouf, Biscan, Nunez, Heskey, Carrol, Balotelli - Gerrard has been in some thoroughly mediocre teams over the past 17 years. 8th is the lowest LFC ever finished with Steven Gerrard in the team. For a club our size, that’s far too low down the table, but saddled with a wealth of truly mid level players, the fact that for most of the past 2 decades we’ve been in or around the top 3 or 4 of the league and competing for trophies until Man City’s big bucks came along speaks volumes for the skipper. Is it a greater achievement to win several league titles surrounded by the worlds best players, or to win one champions league with Djimi Traore starting the final as your left back? The consistency with which he’s played regardless of the quality of those around me will stand to his legacy. And the fact that no matter who came and went, he was never outshone.
Istanbul will be his defining image and rightly so. The header. Appealing to the crowd - ‘We can do this’. Playing at central midfield, then off the front, then right wing, then right back. Roy of the Rovers. You really couldn’t write it. The Gerrard Cup Final a year later. One swing of his gifted right boot sending Shaka Hislop sprawling and creating bedlam amongst the travelling scouse faithful. The crucial volley against Olympiakos in December 2004 - “ooooooooh ya beautaaayyy! What a hit son, what a hit”. History will recall he is the only man to have played and scored in the finals of the FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup and Champions League - winning all four of those games too. But if there was one moment that best encapsulated who Steven Gerrard has been and what he has meant to Liverpool Football Club though, for some reason the one I think of is this:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/nov/04/liverpool-napoli-europa-league (Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO5bvrrEGhg )
This was in Liverpools darkest hour, days after Gillett and Hicks were booted. Roy Hodgson was in charge. Stevie was left on the bench and the team toiled to a 0-1 scoreline at halftime. Called into action and always selfless, the skipper didn’t sulk at his exclusion from the start but went straight into pulling the team out of the mire, with three goals that perfectly capture the player he was. The first - a hard press on the keeper and a sliding tackle to prod the ball over the line and bring the sides level. Nothing fancy, just the grit and determination he played with. The second - calmness personified as he sent the keeper the wrong way with a classy finish from the spot. The third - a moment of magic as he sends the keeper to the floor and with a touch of class dinks it over him into the empty net, celebrating in front of the travelling support.
Selfless, gritty, determined, calm, wonderfully talented, and passionate beyond belief:
Steven Gerrard
