On Saturday afternoon, Steven Gerrard posted a message on Instagram which led many to speculate that his time at LA Galaxy would soon be coming to an end.
“Living in Los Angeles and playing for the great Galaxy supporters has been a privilege,” he wrote.
“You have made this place feel like home to me. This city and this club will always hold a special place in my heart. Thank you.”
It was quickly pointed out that this message was part of Galaxy’s Fan Appreciation Night and so it was premature to suggest that Gerrard was planning to leave Los Angeles.
Yet it would be even more of a leap to believe that Gerrard is anticipating a long-term future in California.
If Robbie Keane has created the template for how to succeed in MLS, Gerrard has never appeared that eager to follow it.
There are differences. Keane had nothing to lose when he went to America. His career in England was winding down. Before he joined Galaxy, it was being speculated he would leave Spurs and sign for Leicester or Blackburn.
Keane could embrace America like many had embraced America in the past, as a place which allowed for reinvention without the hangdog ways of the old world.
Gerrard was different. He was leaving the club he loved with sadness. He may not have been the player he was, but the player he once was had done so much that America wasn’t a place for reinvention, but the venue simply to lament time’s passing.
Last November, four months after he had made his debut for Galaxy, Gerrard told the club’s website that he may only have another year in the game.
“It could be my last season as a footballer. I certainly don’t want to feel like I’m feeling right now come next year.”
He had been taken aback by the demands made on a footballer in the U.S.
“Going on the road, playing on [artificial] turf, playing at altitude, playing in humidity, those are the hurdles that I’ve had to face over the last three months that I wasn’t aware of,” he said. “Every away game has a different challenge.”
The very fact of being in America seemed to have taken him by surprise, even the anonymity of Los Angeles which has been such a contrast with Liverpool is unlikely to persuade Gerrard to stay.
On Saturday evening, Jurgen Klopp said he would welcome Gerrard back to Liverpool, but if and when it does happen, the club need to find a role which suits his talents, while also discovering what those talents are once he retires.
In his most recent autobiography, Gerrard expresses some disappointment that nobody talked to him about a coaching role at the club in the summer of 2015 when Brendan Rodgers was planning to get rid of his assistants Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh.
“I’m not saying I should have been offered the post of assistant manager or first-team coach because I am probably not ready for either role. But would it have hurt them to discuss it with me? Maybe I could have stayed on as a squad player while being groomed for the coaching staff?”
Nothing that has happened since would suggest Gerrard is any more prepared for a coaching role, but Jurgen Klopp is a manager who has the stature and self-confidence to embrace him whenever he returns to Anfield.
But Liverpool will also need to make the right decision when he returns. The idea that any club needs a representative from a glory era as part of the coaching staff is cosmetic flimflam. Liverpool are level on points at the top of the table this weekend and nobody thinks they would have beaten Manchester United if Gerrard had been among the backroom staff.
If Gerrard wants to be Liverpool’s manager one day, he would be better off looking at the example of Ryan Giggs and wondering how much closer Giggs was to becoming Manchester United manager because he was sitting beside Louis Van Gaal. The alternative for Giggs – and Gerrard – is that he could have been managing himself and finding out if he had the ability to do the job or a version of it.
Gerrard, too, will only discover if he has what it takes to lead players by something other than the example he set on the field.
He is prone to viewing things pessimistically, something which was often overcome during his time as a player by his own brilliance.
There were times when the only thing that stopped Liverpool being overwhelmed by Steven Gerrard miserabilism was Steven Gerrard exceptionalism.
In his book, Gerrard talked about the build-up to England’s game against Uruguay when he provided a brief analysis of Luis Suarez, but first reminded the players what was at stake.
He told the players that if they lost against Uruguay, they faced a “terrible summer” of endless regret.
“We could go anywhere we liked on holiday, but there would be no hiding place.” Perhaps unnecessarily, he added, “I wasn’t out to scare anyone.”
Having provided this upbeat general motivational talk, he turned to Suarez and went to the tactics board where he wrote down “all Suarez’s strengths and his very few weaknesses”.
If they were unsure how desperate the situation was, Gerrard had a final reminder. “Never ever think that it’s fine and you’ve got him sorted. You can never relax against him.”
Some might find it psychologically significant that, having provided the bleakest assessment of Suarez, Gerrard headed the ball into his path for Uruguay’s winning goal.
It may also explain why the unchecked optimism of California isn’t going to hold him much longer.
He will return to Liverpool one day, but Liverpool should use his personality in a way that benefits the club. There is evidence that Klopp is getting things right, so there is no need to self-consciously embrace the past, no matter how seductive it seems.
Gerrard may have once grown frustrated at the texts he had to send players like Toni Kroos seeing if they were interested in joining the club, but if he was an ambassador attached to the academy he could offer an example which would be more potent than words.
In a position like that Gerrard’s achievements would be honoured in a way which would also help the club advance.
Liverpool may crave a future where Steven Gerrard is manager, but there is no need to disrupt the present by giving him a role which reminds us all how hard it is to let go of the past.
In the latest GAA Hour, we talk to Ken McGrath of Waterford and with Declan Brennan about a new club players’ association.
