Steven Gerrard has admitted despising Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville during his England career and only ‘pretending’ to like them when on international duty.
Our former captain won 114 caps for England and despite being the country’s best player by some distance during his peak, was criminally misused by various managers who either stuck him on the left or gave him defensive duties centrally – with Frank Lampard allowed to surge forward instead…
SEE MORE:
LFC in talks with £50m winger with worse stats than Salah [Sky Sports]
Gerrard showed his true colours for Liverpool though, regularly in huge match-ups against our most bitter rivals Manchester United.
As a result, he said he found it difficult to socialise with these two players specifically, but gets on very well with them now.
“When you’re lining up against in the tunnel against Rio and Gary Neville you want to do everything in your power to beat them, there’s hatred there, that’s exactly how it is,” he told Belfast Live.
“When you meet up for England at that time, you pretend you like them, but your career finishes, their career finishes and your friendship starts for real.
“I’ve got nothing but respect for Rio as a player, played for a top club all his life, he’s a good fella as well, I’m enjoying the role at BT [Sport TV] with him as well.”
Gerrard works for BT but is also now Liverpool’s Under-18 coach going into next season.
This will be the perfect place for the 37-year-old to develop and one day, it would be brilliant to see him take the manager’s job after Jurgen Klopp.
Hopefully, the German starts a winning tradition and Gerrard continues it!