As this year’s Champions League final returns to the scene of one of the greatest games in our club’s illustrious history, pundits have been reflecting on their memories of 2005 and one story involving Steven Gerrard is quite remarkable.
European football expert Raphael Honigstein was speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Euro Leagues podcast and recalled: “My abiding memory is Gerrard sitting by himself, eating cheesecake, looking sad and depressed.
“We later found out he had just agreed to go to Chelsea – but he didn’t look like someone who had just won the Champions League.”
To think that our captain had just clinched the biggest trophy in his career and had a key part to play in a legendary game of football, this paints quite a sad image of what was going through his head that night.
It was clear that the Scouser’s head had been turned by Chelsea, and for some that in itself is unforgivable, but after the events of what happened in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium – he knew that he could never leave the Reds.
Even though our former captain did show the ultimate loyalty and never left the club, even this glimpse behind the curtain shows what can happen if you allow your head to be turned.
Thankfully, the Huyton-born midfielder came to his senses but it’s clear that almost leaving his boyhood club had a negative impact on the way he could celebrate the best day of his playing career.
Let that be a lesson to anyone who even thinks about leaving Liverpool!