[lfc-news] Time running out for Gerrard - Post

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Liverpool Daily Post, 8 Dec 2004
Time running out for Gerrard
By Andy Hunter, Daily Post

LIVERPOOL will have form, home passions and a tradition of European heroics
on their side at Anfield tonight but they do not have any more time among
the also-rans if Steven Gerrard is to provide their inspiration beyond this
season.

Liverpool not only have to defeat Olympiakos to book a place in the
knockout stages of the Champions League and pocket an extra £5million from
UEFA, they must beat the Greeks to simply keep the wolves from Gerrard's
door in January.

The club and the player will not contemplate an Anfield exit during the
transfer window and no matter how big an offer they receive or how much
money they require to construct a new squad or stadium, Gerrard (above)
will continue to drive Liverpool this season.

If the new year brings only UEFA Cup football for a fourth time in five
seasons, however, then there will be more chance of peace and love at an
AGM than of Liverpool keeping their prized asset beyond next summer.

Gerrard left no-one in any doubt yesterday that Liverpool have got six
months to prove they can compete for the Premiership title and Champions
League or the loyalty that resisted Chelsea in the summer would be
seriously strained when they inevitably come calling again.

That is exactly the message the skipper has relayed to Rick Parry and
Rafael Benitez ever since doubts over his Anfield future first emerged, and
while his words will provoke under-standable fear among supporters the
refusal to hide behind false platitudes does him credit.

Gerrard would love nothing more than to hold the game's greatest prizes
aloft in a Liverpool shirt. And despite lending his support to chairman
David Moores last week, the brutal reality is the club has to give Benitez
every opportunity to compete with Arsenal, Chelsea and United - and fast..

At 24 the England international already fears time is slipping by in which
to match his world-class talent with an appropriate medal collection.

So with Champions League qualification on a knife-edge against Olympiakos,
expect to see a performance that even eclipses Gerrard's usual standards at
Anfield tonight.

He insisted: "It is not about me at the moment, it is about how well the
team does. If I am successful at this club I won't have to be looking
anywhere else but if things are not looking good then I will have to think
again in the summer.

"I am a winner and I want to win medals. By the time I am 35 I want a big
family and to be able to show my children all the medals I won in my career.

"I have supported this club all my life so it will mean a lot more to win
those medals with Liverpool and I hope from now until the end of the season
the club shows it is as ambitious as I am to win something.

"I will be 25 next summer and will only have five or six years left at the
highest level to win things so I hope the turnaround will happen quite
sharpish.

"I want to give the club the best chance to get back in the title race and
to be successful. That is why I decided to stay in the summer. I didn't
want to make a quick decision in the summer, I wanted to help turn things
around this season.

"I don't have to say how important this game is against Olympiakos, but I
hope if we win the manager will get the money to strengthen the squad.
Everyone knows the club needs strengthening.

"The manager knows better than anyone how many players he needs but it
would be nice to see a few new faces in January."

Gerrard and an uncertain Liverpool future were inextricably linked the
moment his head was turned at Euro 2004 by Chelsea's staggering
£110,000-a-week offer and the promise of an all-out assault on the title
and European Cup.

And he has already contemplated the consequences of leaving Anfield in his
prime as captain as he admits his frustrations are borne out of being a
Liverpool fan, while his ambitions must be shaped by life as a professional
at the top of his game.

"The fans want the same as I do," he insists. "I know if I leave the club
at any time in the next two or three years I will have some fans who
support my decision and others who turn against me. It is only natural they
don't want to see their best players leave, and as the captain and a local
lad it would probably hurt them more if I decided to go.

"I am in a difficult situation. I am a fan myself and I want to win things
with Liverpool but I don't have time on my side.

"I can't wait three or four years for the club to turn around and to wait
for it to become a title-winning side again. I hope it happens this season
but already we are 15 points off the top. Hopefully we can be in the frame
by the end of this season and be in the title race from the very start of
next season."

But Gerrard wants improvement now, and Liverpool will take a small but
crucial step forward if they defeat Olympiakos in tonight's Group A
decider. Anything else is unthinkable.

"It will be a disaster for the club and myself personally if we end up in
the UEFA Cup," admits Gerrard. "I have already won it, it plays second
fiddle to the Champions League and I don't settle for second best. The
Champions League is where I want to be. All the players here realise how
massive it is so tomorrow is so important individually and for the club.

"That's why I think you will see a very big Liverpool performance against
Olympiakos.

"I have never seen the boys so excited before a match and we will show what
being in the Champions League means to us."

He added: "Nobody is talking about the UEFA Cup at the moment and hopefully
that will still be the case come Thursday morning. Everyone at the club
wants to stay in the Champions League and we don't want to be thinking
about the UEFA Cup draw at the end of the week.

"It's a massive week for the fans because these are the games they want to
see, us in Europe and then playing Everton on Saturday. These are also the
games you want to play in, but from now to the end of the season the games
will just get bigger and bigger.

"There are a lot of things to play for and we want to have a successful
season, so we must just concentrate on doing our best in every game.

"I wouldn't say it's win or bust but it is a massive game for me personally
and everybody associated to Liverpool."

Gerrard believes the response Liverpool have issued to their astonishing
injury crisis is reason itself to be confident that the victory he craves
tonight and the improvement he demands this season can be achieved.

He explains: "You can either feel sorry for yourself when you have a lot of
injuries or dig deep. We showed against Arsenal and in the first half
against Aston Villa how we are dealing with it and hopefully we can build
on those performances until the end of the season.

"Being realistic I don't think we can win the Champions League this season
but I do think we can improve on our quarter-final place of a few years
ago. We have a better squad and a better team now.

"The squad still needs rebuilding though, you only need to look at the
league table to see there is still some strengthening to do. The manager
has only been here five months but he is definitely the man to turn it
around. How soon he will do it I don't know.

"The players are getting used to the manager and what he wants. He is a
fantastic coach, one of the best I've ever worked with, but how quickly he
can turn it around I don't know."

Instantly would not only be nice, it is vital.


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