From SkySports…
Paddy Barclay believes this will be Steven Gerrard’s last season at Liverpool if they fail to finish in the top four.
The Sunday papers have been full of stories about Fernando Torres wanting to quit if they do not make the Champions League next season and the Sunday Supplement panel believed that will happen.
But Barclay took the debate further, suggesting that not only will the Spaniard leave, but it will be time to part company with Liverpool Football Club’s talismanic captain.
“We’ve now got to the stage where Gerrard is entitled to move,” he told the Sunday Supplement.
"He got a lot of stick when he tried to move to Chelsea before and changed his mind, partly because of his love for Liverpool Football Club. I think the time has come, it’s just not in Gerrard’s interests to go, it’s in Liverpool’s interests as well.
"I’ll tell you why: because Liverpool Football Club is based on the principles of Bill Shankly and Shankly very seldom kept a player past 30; they would be sold when the time is right for Liverpool and the time is right for Liverpool now.
Decline
"The reason for that is the market value for Gerrard now, while he’s still in contract, is… you could argue between 20million and 40million.
"If you look five years down the line, Steven Gerrard will be nearly 35 and will no longer be of any use. If you think that Liverpool with him but without other players, are going to spend five years winning leagues and the Champions League then you’re in Hans Christian Andersen Land.
“They aren’t. There is only slow decline in front of Liverpool and that’s with Gerrard - without him, they would have money.”
Barclay admitted that it would be a public relations “disaster” if Liverpool were to sell their skipper at the end of the season.
But with Torres seemingly on his way, Javier Mascherano constantly linked with a move to Barcelona and Xabi Alonso already at Real Madrid, he sees it as a vital part of the rebuilding process that will need to take place.
And Barclay pointed to Manchester United’s sale of Cristiano Ronaldo this summer as a perfect example of a club cashing in on their prize asset in pursuit of the bigger picture.
“You’re saying that Liverpool Football Club is going to be wound up in five years time because Steven Gerrard is going to retire,” he said.
"The heartbeat of Manchester United was Cristiano Ronaldo but they sold him and it hasn’t curled up and died. It’s not as effective, but there’s a question of what you do with the money. Cristiano Ronaldo was sold at or before his peak and Steven Gerrard is not going to get much better than he is now, unless he gets a move - and it’s in everybody’s interests.
"It’s not as if it’s a new principle, it’s the way Shankly worked, it’s the way football works. I am sure they are not considering it because of public relations - it would be a disaster. But the point is, it’s not a novel idea because he was on his way to Chelsea a few years ago.
"Do you think he’d want to stay if Torres goes, which he will, and Mascherano goes, which he will, and Xabi Alonso goes, which he already has? Do you think he’d want to stay?
“There’s this sentimental thing which is bad for Liverpool Football Club; they have to get on with it and build.”
